At a glance
- Most seller conversations, the author writes, come down to either a founder ready for a next chapter or a firm that capped out after years of growth outran its infrastructure.
- The column's central claim is that growth a firm did not choose deliberately stops being growth and becomes risk instead.
- Part of the cause, in the author's telling, is that the industry is confused about its own purpose.
In an Oct. 13 InvestmentNews opinion column, the author writes that their firm has started exploring what a first acquisition might look like.
The author says they hit a similar wall in 2022, growing faster than the systems and people around them could absorb. Most seller conversations, the author writes, come down to either a founder ready for a next chapter or a firm that capped out after years of growth outran its infrastructure.
The column's central claim is that growth a firm did not choose deliberately stops being growth and becomes risk instead.
Part of the cause, in the author's telling, is that the industry is confused about its own purpose. Advisors describe themselves as wealth managers or financial planners, but the work clients actually pay for is anticipating and solving problems before they surface.
The column separates a practice tied to one person's hours from an enterprise whose growth can sustain itself once it starts.
The author also allows that a lifestyle practice with dependable cash flow is a perfectly good outcome, just not one that should expect double-digit organic growth.
Reported by PWD Editors from InvestmentNews. Published . Updated Oct 26, 2026 · 10:49 p.m. ET. Corrections