In this episode of Succession Stories, host Laurie Barkman sits down with Susan Latremoille, founder of Next Chapter Lifestyle Advisors. Susan spent nearly four decades as a financial advisor helping business owners and high-net-worth families prepare financially for retirement — until one client walked into her office deeply depressed after retiring to his dream home in Florida. That moment cracked open a question the financial services industry had been avoiding. And then she lost a $100 million client the day his deal closed — not because she did anything wrong, but because she had never asked him what came next. Those two wake-up calls changed everything.

The Part of Retirement Nobody Warns You About

What if the hardest part of leaving your business had nothing to do with money?

In this episode of Succession Stories, I sat down with Susan Latremoille, founder of Next Chapter Lifestyle Advisors, who spent nearly four decades as a financial advisor helping business owners prepare for retirement. What she discovered along the way changed everything about how she does her work.

And it might change how you think about yours.

The Hollywood Version of Retirement

There's a version of retirement that looks something like this.

• Unlimited golf and exotic travel

• No more stress, no more pressure, no more problems

• Holding hands with your partner into the sunset

Susan calls it the Hollywood version. And she'll be the first to tell you it's one of the most dangerous myths in retirement planning.

Because for many business owners, the reality looks nothing like the dream.

What happens after the bucket list is checked off? What fills the space where the business used to be?

That question, for most founders, goes unanswered for far too long.

A Statistic That Should Stop You in Your Tracks

The Exit Planning Institute has tracked this for years.

Seventy-five percent of business owners regret exiting within the first year.

Three out of four.

Susan and I spent time unpacking why that number is so stubbornly high. She shared a framework that identifies the core losses founders experience after an exit, and honestly, hearing it laid out so clearly was one of those moments where everything just clicks.

If you've ever wondered why someone who "made it" could feel so lost, this conversation will give you the language to understand it.

It's Not the Money. It's the Identity.

Here's what Susan kept coming back to.

Financial freedom gives you choices. But it doesn't give you a life.

The transition that trips up so many founders isn't financial at all. It's personal. It's the quiet loss of things you didn't even realize were holding you together.

Your title. Your team. Your structure. Your reason to get up in the morning.

One of her clients described it simply and perfectly: he went from a who's who to a who's he overnight.

That kind of loss doesn't show up in a spreadsheet. And it doesn't get solved by one either.

What Planning Actually Looks Like

Susan's work now is built around a different question.

Not just, are you financially ready to exit? But, are you personally ready for what comes next?

She walks through the process her firm uses to help business owners build what she calls a happiness portfolio. It's a framework that takes the fuzzy, hard-to-name emotional territory of retirement and makes it something you can actually work with.

It's one of the most practical approaches to this kind of planning I've come across, and I think you'll want to hear how it works directly from her.

A Warning for Financial Advisors

Susan also shared a story about a client named Doug that every financial advisor needs to hear.

It's a candid, almost painful account of what happens when an advisor focuses entirely on the transaction and misses the relationship underneath it.

The numbers involved are significant. But more than that, it's a clear picture of where the advisory world is heading and what it means to truly add value to a client's life.

If you work with business owners, this part of the conversation is for you.

The Exit You Actually Want

At some point, every founder leaves.

The question Susan keeps returning to is not whether you're ready to exit. It's whether you're ready for what comes after. And that distinction is worth sitting with.

This is the kind of conversation I come back to often. Because it asks the things most people quietly avoid. When the title is gone, the team has moved on, and the structure that shaped your days for decades disappears overnight, what replaces it? Have you thought about who you are outside of what you've built? And if the business sold tomorrow, would you know what to do on Monday morning?

Susan has spent nearly four decades sitting across the table from founders navigating exactly that moment. She brings the experience, the frameworks, and the kind of honest care that makes this conversation worth your time.

And here's food for thought. The advisor who shows up for that conversation, not just for the transaction, but for the person behind it, has an opportunity that most never see. The gap between financial readiness and personal readiness is real. It's wide. Most advisors never step into it. Not because they don't care, but because nobody taught them how.

The advisor who learns to stand in that gap doesn't just retain a client through a liquidity event. They become irreplaceable. That's exactly why I created B.U.I.L.T. By Design™.

Listen to the full episode to hear the complete picture, including the framework, the stories, and the one piece of advice Susan would give every business owner before they sign on the dotted line.

By your side,
Laurie Barkman

Watch the full YouTube Episode here:

Connect with Susan Latremoille:

Website: https://nextchapterlifestyleadvisors.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanlatremoille
Email: [email protected]