diff --git a/handler/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/ssl/HandshakeCompletionEvent.java b/handler/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/ssl/HandshakeCompletionEvent.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1e0c37fba1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/handler/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/ssl/HandshakeCompletionEvent.java
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2013 The Netty Project
+ *
+ * The Netty Project licenses this file to you under the Apache License,
+ * version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at:
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+ * WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+ * License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+package io.netty.handler.ssl;
+
+
+/**
+ * Event that is fired once the SSL handshake is complete, which may be because it was successful or there
+ * was an error.
+ */
+public final class HandshakeCompletionEvent {
+    private final Throwable cause;
+
+    HandshakeCompletionEvent(Throwable cause) {
+        this.cause = cause;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Return {@code true} if the handshake was successful
+     */
+    public boolean isSuccess() {
+        return cause == null;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Return the {@link Throwable} if {@link #isSuccess()} returns {@code false}
+     * and so the handshake failed.
+     */
+    public Throwable cause() {
+        return cause;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/handler/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/ssl/SslHandler.java b/handler/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/ssl/SslHandler.java
index 2406f98449..0594756bed 100644
--- a/handler/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/ssl/SslHandler.java
+++ b/handler/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/ssl/SslHandler.java
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ import io.netty.channel.ChannelInboundByteHandler;
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelOutboundByteHandler;
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelPipeline;
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelPromise;
+import io.netty.channel.ChannelStateHandler;
 import io.netty.channel.DefaultChannelPromise;
 import io.netty.channel.FileRegion;
 import io.netty.util.concurrent.ImmediateExecutor;
@@ -66,6 +67,11 @@ import java.util.regex.Pattern;
  * renegotiating.  You will be notified by the {@link ChannelFuture} which is
  * returned by the {@link #handshake()} method when the handshake
  * process succeeds or fails.
+ * <p>
+ * Beside using the handshake {@link ChannelFuture} to get notified about the completation of the handshake it's
+ * also possible to detect it by implement the
+ * {@link ChannelStateHandler#userEventTriggered(ChannelHandlerContext, Object)}
+ * method and check for a {@link HandshakeCompletionEvent}.
  *
  * <h3>Handshake</h3>
  * <p>
@@ -173,6 +179,8 @@ public class SslHandler
     private volatile long handshakeTimeoutMillis = 10000;
     private volatile long closeNotifyTimeoutMillis = 3000;
 
+    private static final HandshakeCompletionEvent HANDSHAKE_SUCCESS_EVENT = new HandshakeCompletionEvent(null);
+
     /**
      * Creates a new instance.
      *
@@ -958,12 +966,16 @@ public class SslHandler
      * Notify all the handshake futures about the successfully handshake
      */
     private void setHandshakeSuccess() {
-        for (;;) {
-            ChannelPromise p = handshakePromises.poll();
-            if (p == null) {
-                break;
+        try {
+            for (;;) {
+                ChannelPromise p = handshakePromises.poll();
+                if (p == null) {
+                    break;
+                }
+                p.setSuccess();
             }
-            p.setSuccess();
+        } finally {
+            ctx.fireUserEventTriggered(HANDSHAKE_SUCCESS_EVENT);
         }
     }
 
@@ -971,39 +983,41 @@ public class SslHandler
      * Notify all the handshake futures about the failure during the handshake.
      */
     private void setHandshakeFailure(Throwable cause) {
-
-        // Release all resources such as internal buffers that SSLEngine
-        // is managing.
-        engine.closeOutbound();
-
-        final boolean disconnected = cause == null || cause instanceof ClosedChannelException;
         try {
-            engine.closeInbound();
-        } catch (SSLException e) {
-            if (!disconnected) {
-                logger.warn("SSLEngine.closeInbound() raised an exception after a handshake failure.", e);
-            } else if (!closeNotifyWriteListener.done) {
-                logger.warn("SSLEngine.closeInbound() raised an exception due to closed connection.", e);
-            } else {
-                // cause == null && sentCloseNotify
-                // closeInbound() will raise an exception with bogus truncation attack warning.
-            }
-        }
+            // Release all resources such as internal buffers that SSLEngine
+            // is managing.
+            engine.closeOutbound();
 
-        if (!handshakePromises.isEmpty()) {
-            if (cause == null) {
-                cause = new ClosedChannelException();
-            }
-
-            for (;;) {
-                ChannelPromise p = handshakePromises.poll();
-                if (p == null) {
-                    break;
+            final boolean disconnected = cause == null || cause instanceof ClosedChannelException;
+            try {
+                engine.closeInbound();
+            } catch (SSLException e) {
+                if (!disconnected) {
+                    logger.warn("SSLEngine.closeInbound() raised an exception after a handshake failure.", e);
+                } else if (!closeNotifyWriteListener.done) {
+                    logger.warn("SSLEngine.closeInbound() raised an exception due to closed connection.", e);
+                } else {
+                    // cause == null && sentCloseNotify
+                    // closeInbound() will raise an exception with bogus truncation attack warning.
                 }
-                p.setFailure(cause);
             }
-        }
 
+            if (!handshakePromises.isEmpty()) {
+                if (cause == null) {
+                    cause = new ClosedChannelException();
+                }
+
+                for (;;) {
+                    ChannelPromise p = handshakePromises.poll();
+                    if (p == null) {
+                        break;
+                    }
+                    p.setFailure(cause);
+                }
+            }
+        } finally {
+            ctx.fireUserEventTriggered(new HandshakeCompletionEvent(cause));
+        }
         flush0(ctx, 0, cause);
     }