Recently, I consulted with a $1.3B wirehouse team that completed a successful sell/stay full acquisition.
After extensive due diligence, the team selected a strategic RIA partnership offering expanded capabilities, meaningful enterprise equity participation, and industry-leading economics.
While this was certainly an exceptional outcome for the senior advisors, for me, the most powerful part of the story was the staff’s reaction. The advisors shared with their team that, as part of joining the partnership firm, the entire staff would also receive meaningful equity ownership in the larger enterprise.
Not token equity. Real equity. Two staff members cried tears of joy.
Later, when I met members of the team in person, several shared a similar sentiment: “It was exciting to feel included and valued too.” That moment stayed with me.
After more than three decades consulting advisors, one thing has remained remarkably consistent: most advisors deeply value their support staff and recognize them as integral to their success.
Yet broad-based ownership remains incredibly rare in wealth management.
That particular RIA embraces a very different philosophy, everyone rowing in the same direction, with real skin in the game.
In this case, not only did the senior advisors win. Their entire team won too. And sometimes, those are the outcomes that matter most.