This discussion will concern itself primarily with the retirement of the proprietor. Retiring from public service and industry has its own peculiar considerations. For instance, where publicly administered retirement programs exist there is a certain amount of predictability and stability. There may also be mandatory retirement ages and offers of buyout for early retirement. An early retirement package offered to a professional in the industry sometimes results in valuable consultative opportunities with the same company the professional has just retired from. I have friends in that enviable position who will admit that their good fortune had more to do with economic conditions and company growth philosophy than with their own good planning.

For the proprietor, however, providing for retirement calls for planning early and often through the life of one’s business experience. I suggest there is no time too early to start. Writing in the March 1998 POB, I discussed start-up considerations for the new survey practice and raised the “participation issue.” What were the new proprietor’s intentions regarding partners or associates? Would employees or associates be offered long-term participation options such as future partnerships, profit-sharing plans or some kind of future ownership share? The course a business will follow and the impact on a proprietor’s retirement planning can be determined to a large extent by the answers to those questions. The presence of partners and associates standing by to continue a business may be an elderly surveyor/proprietor’s best access to a comfortable retirement.