The 2025 National Exit Planners Survey – Overview
Industry Activities: 2024
Statement of Purpose:
According to the Small Business Administration and the US Census Bureau, over 2,000,000 Baby Boomers are preparing to transition from their businesses.Exit Planning has quickly emerged as a fast-growing advisory specialty in response to this wave of ownership change. It now includes a wide range of professionals—accountants, attorneys, consultants, coaches, and others—who are helping business owners navigate the process. This Exit Planners Survey is the fifth annual comprehensive look at both the industry and its practitioners.
What did we learn?
Survey invitations were sent to 7,267 professionals between February 1 and March 2, 2025, reflecting a 70% increase in the population of exit planning advisors over the past two years.
Recipients:
- Advisors certified in business exit planning
- Professionals who advertise themselves as business exit
planning specialists, or - Members of an association for exit planning professionals
that practice in a planning-related field.
A total of 434 responses were submitted representing practitioners in eight specialties from six countries. There were advisory responses from four Canadian provinces, four countries outside of North America, and 47 U.S. states.
The number of responses allows for a confidence level of 99% with a margin of error of 3.60% which means that if the same population was surveyed again, there is a 99% probability that the answers re-ceived would vary less that 4% from those reported here.
This allows us to safely presume that the data in this report is representative of the industry as a whole.