I met with a client in Suffolk recently and came away from the meeting concerned that there will be considerable change and challenges for firms of around £1m in fees in semi-rural market town locations throughout the country.

This is a practice with around £1m of fees; it is the leading practice in a market town a little way from Ipswich.

The practice was previously four partners and is now down to two. The fee base is intensely loyal as are the staff, who number around nine. The two remaining partners are looking at five to 10 years before retirement and our discussion revolved around profiling the practice over the next five or so years, ready for an eventual sale. There is no second tier management who might be considered for succession and the profitability is around £200,000, shared between the two partners.