For advisors

Someday you will stop. Your clients still need someone.

A succession program for luxury travel advisors who are winding down, slowing down, or simply have no plan for the day they hand the phone to someone else.

See the four ways this works Estimate what your book is worth

Confidential. No obligation. Most conversations we have never become a transaction — and that is fine.

The part nobody says out loud

Most books don’t get sold. They just quietly stop.

An advisor spends thirty years building relationships that no booking engine could replace. Then health, or age, or exhaustion arrives, and there is no plan. Calls go unreturned. Clients drift to a call center, or to a nephew who “does travel,” or they simply stop traveling the way they used to.

It happens constantly in this industry, and it is almost always avoidable. The reason it isn’t avoided is not money. It is that there has never been a good answer to the question you actually care about: who is going to look after these people?

That is the question this program exists to answer. The money matters, and we will come to it — there is a page here that will estimate what your book is worth before you speak to a single human being. But it is not the first question, and we would rather not pretend it is.

If you have read this far, you are probably already thinking about it.

I run Outdoor Travel Adventures. We are not a roll-up, we are not private equity, and there is no acquisitions department here — if you write to the address at the bottom of this page, I am the one who reads it.

We build luxury and adventure travel the same way you do: on relationships with people on the ground who pick up the phone when something goes wrong at 2am in Queenstown. Over the past few years we have also built a fairly serious amount of technology around that, which you can see further down this page. Not because technology sells trips, but because it is what lets a small team look after a lot of people properly.

What I have watched happen, more than once, is an advisor I respect reaching the end of their career with nothing to hand anyone. No buyer, no successor, no arrangement — and forty years of trust evaporating over about eighteen months.

So here is the offer, plainly. If you are winding down, we will take your clients on, look after them the way you would, pay you for the relationships you built, and show you the money as it comes in so you never have to take my word for it. If you are not winding down but you are tired, we will take the part of your book you no longer want and pay you on it forever. And if you have no plan at all, we will sign a free arrangement that costs you nothing and means your family is not left holding a phone full of strangers.

I should be straight about one thing. This program is new. If you did this today you would be among the first, and I am not going to put a testimonial from an advisor who does not exist on a page like this. What I can show you instead is the software running, the clients we already look after, and terms where most of what you are paid comes out of bookings you can watch happen line by line. That is not an apology for having no track record. It is the correct way to protect yourself from anybody who claims one.

You can stop at any point in any of these. That is deliberate. I would rather you spend two years watching us work with three of your clients before you decide anything than sign something you regret.

Here is what I would like this to be worth to you. Six years from now, the Hendersons are on their fourth trip since you introduced them. You are seventy-two and not working. Once a quarter an email arrives telling you what they booked and what it paid you, and you read it on your phone and put it away without thinking about it much. Nobody drifted. Nothing you built got wasted. That is the whole of the exercise.

Will

Owner, Outdoor Travel Adventures · legacy@otadventures.com

Which one is you

Three situations, three different arrangements.

These are not the same conversation, and it does you no favors to pretend they are. Find yourself below — the right structure follows from it.

You want out

You have a date in mind, or nearly. There is a stack of future-dated bookings you are dreading, a spouse asking when, and a real reluctance to be seen by clients as someone who sold them.

Track C if you are ready now, Track B if you want a run-up to it

You're not done, you're tired

You would happily keep the twenty clients you love. It is the other hundred — the enquiries you no longer have time to do properly, the trips you turn down — that are grinding you out.

Track A — referral, no exclusivity, nothing to sign up to

You have no plan at all

You are not going anywhere. But if you were hit by a bus tomorrow, nobody would know which clients are mid-trip, which deposits are due, or who to call.

Track D — free, and the one to start with if you are unsure

Your first question

What your clients would actually get.

You are handing over people who trust you. Here is what they walk into — and you are welcome to test all of it yourself before you commit to anything.

A named advisor, not a queue

One person owns the relationship, the way you did. Not a rotating pool, not a shared inbox.

Their own portal and app

Itineraries, travel documents, messages and trip details in one place, on the phone in their pocket.

Flights watched around the clock

Delays and cancellations trigger an alert and a rebooking task before the client has reached the gate.

Nobody unattended, ever

When an advisor is away, coverage is formally delegated with handover notes. No client falls into a gap.

A disruption desk

When a cyclone, strike or supplier failure hits a destination, we can see every traveler affected within minutes and start working the list.

Their preferences survive the handover

Room types, dietary needs, anniversaries, loyalty numbers, who not to seat together. We import all of it and we use it.

How a handover actually runs

Client by client, at your pace, reversible until the end.

Nothing about this is a switch you flip. Every client moves through the same four stages, on your timing, and you can stop the whole thing at any point before the last one.

1
You watch us work
We take a handful of your clients — you choose which. You keep full visibility of every message, itinerary and booking, and you say nothing to anyone until you are satisfied. Most advisors start with two or three of their most demanding clients on purpose. We would rather you did.
2
You make the introduction
In your words, in your name, from your address. Not a corporate transition notice — a note from you saying you have found someone you trust. This is the single thing that determines whether a client stays, and it is why we pay more for a book where you are willing to make it.
3
You stay on the record
You remain co-advisor for as long as you want. You can see every trip, read every message, step in whenever you feel like it, and take a client back if you are not happy. There is no point in the first year where you lose the ability to intervene.
4
You step back — and keep getting paid
Client by client, on a schedule you set, you stop being involved. The payments do not stop with your involvement; they follow the bookings, and you can see each one.

Your second question

How you'll know we're paying you what we owe.

This is where most arrangements like this quietly fail. An advisor sells their book, the payments are supposed to follow future bookings, and they have absolutely no way to see whether those bookings happened. Within a year they assume they are being shortchanged, whether or not they are.

So we show you the ledger. Every booking made for every client you transferred, with the supplier, the travel date, the gross commission, your share, and whether it has been paid yet. Updated as it happens, not summarized once a year. You do not have to ask for it and you do not have to trust us — you can just look.

Your statement — extract

Client & booking	Travelled	Commission	Your share	Status
Henderson — Southern Ocean Lodge, 7 nts	Mar 2027	$8,420	$2,105	Paid 14 Apr
Ashworth — Bora Bora, overwater villa	Feb 2027	$6,180	$1,545	Paid 2 Apr
Quinn party — NZ South Island, 14 nts	Nov 2027	$11,900	$2,975	Due on travel
Delacroix — Great Barrier Reef charter	Sep 2027	$4,300	$1,075	Due on travel

Illustrative figures. Your own statement shows every booking, not a sample.

The arrangements

Four ways this works. Start on whichever rung you can live with.

These are our standard terms, published, the same for everyone. Each one asks a little more of you than the last, and each one can turn into the next when you are ready — or never, which is a perfectly good outcome too.

Track D

Contingency agreement

If you have no plan and no intention of stopping

Nothing changes, no money moves, and you carry on exactly as you are. You name us as your successor, and if illness, injury or worse takes you out of the business, we take over your live trips the same day and your family is paid for the book rather than watching it disappear. Free, and you can tear it up whenever you like.

What it costs: Nothing
Triggered by: Death, disability, or your say-so
Your estate receives: 30% of net commission for 3 years
Commitment: None — cancel any time

Track A

Referral arrangement

If you want to do less without stopping

You stay in business and keep every client you want. The ones you no longer have time to do properly, you send to us — we do the work, you are paid on everything they book, and you are not tied to anything. No exclusivity, no minimum, no notice period. This is where most advisors start, because it costs nothing to find out whether we are any good.

Your share: 25% of net commission for 3 years
After year three: 10% for as long as they keep booking
Exclusivity: None
Visibility: Full ledger access from day one

Track B

The glide path

If you are two to four years from stopping

You affiliate with us and keep servicing the clients you genuinely enjoy, at a split that stands up against any host agency. Everything else transitions gradually, at your pace, while you are still here to watch it happen. At the end of the term whatever remains converts to a purchase on a formula you agreed at the start — so the hard decision gets made once, early, while it is still hypothetical.

On clients you keep: 65–70% commission split
On clients you transition: 25% override for the term
Term: 2–4 years, then converts
What we ask: Warm introductions; you don't re-solicit

Track C

We buy the book

If you are ready now

A straightforward sale of the client relationships, your records, your brand if you want it carried on, and the commission on travel already booked. Part is paid on signing; the rest follows what the book actually earns over three years, which you watch line by line. We deliberately keep the cash portion modest — a large check up front is how these deals go wrong, because it pays you to disengage on the day it clears, and disengagement is what loses your clients.

Price: 1.0–1.75× your annual net commission
Paid on signing: 15–25%
Balance: 25–30% of what the book earns, 36 months
If retention beats 70%: A bonus at month 24
Booked-not-traveled: Bought separately, at face value
What we ask: Introductions, your records, and occasional advice for a year

Where a book lands in that range is not a negotiation tactic, and we will tell you why on the first call. Repeat clients, well-documented preferences, business in destinations we know, and your willingness to make introductions push it up. A transactional book with thin records and a clean break pushes it down — and in that case a referral arrangement is usually the honest answer instead of a purchase.

Work out roughly where yours sits → — it runs in your browser and sends us nothing.

What we commit to

The things you are right to worry about.

Nobody finds out

Not your host, not your consortium, not your suppliers, not your clients. Every conversation starts under a mutual NDA and stays there until you decide otherwise. Being seen to be winding down costs you money, and we are not going to be the reason it happens.

You can take them back

For the first twelve months, if we are not looking after your clients the way you did, you can have them back — contractually, and with a full export of their records. We would rather write that into the agreement than argue about it later.

Your name can stay on it

If your agency name means something to your clients, we will keep it, as part of OTA. You keep your email address and a page of your own. Handing over the work does not have to mean erasing thirty years of your name.

There is no clock on this

We are not going to chase you. If the answer is “ask me again in two years,” that is a real answer and we will diary it. The advisors who do this well started the conversation years before they needed to.

Straight answers

The questions we get asked first.

Do my clients have to know I was paid?

No, and there is no reason for it to come up. What clients see is an introduction from you to an advisor you trust. The commercial arrangement between us is between us. That said, we will not lie to a client who asks a direct question — and in our experience the ones who ask are reassured that you cared enough to arrange it properly.

What happens to the trips that are already booked?

We service them, and you get paid on them. Commission on travel booked but not yet taken is treated separately and bought at face value — it is not folded into the multiple, and it is not something you should have to keep chasing after you have stopped working. For many advisors this is the most immediately useful thing we do, and we can do it before any wider agreement exists.

I'm with a host agency or consortium. Does that block this?

Sometimes it constrains it, so read your agreement early — a few contain client non-solicit clauses or a right of first refusal on a sale. We will look at it with you before either of us spends time on structure. In most cases it shapes the timing rather than preventing anything.

What if my clients don't stay?

Some won't, and any buyer telling you otherwise is either inexperienced or not being straight with you. A warmly introduced book typically holds somewhere between half and three-quarters of its clients through the first two years. That is exactly why the bulk of the payment follows what the book actually earns rather than a number we guess at on day one — if it goes well you are paid more than a lump sum would have given you, and if it goes badly neither of us is arguing about a check that has already been cashed.

Can I just try it with a couple of clients?

Yes, and we would prefer it. The referral arrangement exists for exactly this. Send us two clients — ideally difficult ones — and watch what happens. It costs you nothing, you are paid on anything they book, and nothing else needs to be decided.

Is this a franchise, or do I have to move my accreditation?

Neither. Clients you transition are serviced under our accreditation; there is nothing for you to buy, join or convert, and no fee to be part of the program. If you are staying in business under Track A, your setup is entirely unaffected.

What do you actually want out of this?

Good clients, and the chance to keep looking after them for a long time. We sell luxury and adventure travel to people who travel repeatedly — a well-tended book of those clients is worth more to us over a decade than it is to almost anyone else, which is why we can pay properly for it and why we are content to be paid back out of bookings rather than asking you to take a discount for cash.

The first conversation costs you an hour.

No pitch deck, no valuation you did not ask for, and nothing in writing unless you want it. Tell us roughly where you are and we will tell you honestly whether there is anything here for you.

Write to Will directly Estimate your book first

legacy@otadventures.com· Every enquiry is confidential

Terms shown are our standard published structures and the starting point for a conversation, not an offer capable of acceptance. Any agreement should be reviewed by your own attorney and accountant, particularly on accreditation, state seller-of-travel registration, errors-and-omissions tail coverage, and the tax treatment of a sale. Retention figures are our planning assumptions, not guarantees.