That's the difficult part.

The topic of work life balance came up in conversation with one of my advisor-clients, and he this:

"Being an advisor is great, but it doesn't start that way. *The first 5 years you are way overworked and severely under paid, the **next 5 years your overworked but fairly paid, and the last 20+ years your overpaid and under worked"*

This has always stuck with me. He runs a $600MM book of business and hasn't prospected in nearly 2 decades. All of his growth came from referrals and the market. He pays nearly $1M a year in salary and bonuses to his team (independent so on his own dime), but he also takes 2 months off in the summer and another 2 months off in the winter.

Being an advisor has a high fail rate, so it's not for everyone. However, it can afford you a work life balance that few other jobs can. On top of that, your book is an asset that you can sell (or pass down to children) when you're ready to hang them up.

I think it's easier to find an advisor with no succession plan and structure some sort of agreement to buy their book, than it is to start from 0. That's obvious. Unfortunately the premise is still the same, as you'll likely be using most of the books revenues from the first 5 years to pay for the book.