by Liz Lenz, Managing Director, Concurrent Investment Advisors
January 8, 2026
The One-Time Sale Myth: Rethinking Succession Planning
Advisors spend their careers helping clients prepare for the future, yet many still neglect to plan for their own. Succession remains one of the most misunderstood elements of firm management. The challenge is not a lack of desire to transition well, but the persistent myth that succession is a one-time event rather than a long-term growth strategy embedded in the business from the start.
Succession Is a Strategy, Not a Deadline
The best time to plan is not at the end. It is early, when time and flexibility allow you to invest in people and partnerships that provide more optionality to achieve your desired exit strategy. Advisors who wait until the final chapter often face limited buyers, compressed valuations, and rushed decisions.
Succession is about ensuring continuity of service to clients, not the completion of it. Founders who build with that intent make early decisions that set their firms up for lasting stability: developing teams, defining roles, and building systems that endure beyond their direct involvement. As a result, these founders can witness their investment in infrastructure fuel the firm’s growth well before they consider monetizing it.
Behavior Shapes Enterprise Value
Enterprise value is influenced as much by behavior as by numbers. Many founders built successful firms through discipline and control, but those same habits can limit scalability.When every decision flows through one person, growth slows and the organization stops learning to lead itself.
Ask yourself: When was the last time the founder was able to take two weeks off? If the answer is “never”, that’s a red flag. True enterprise maturity is measured by how well a business operates when the founder steps away. Delegation and empowerment are not signs of weakness; they are indicators of leadership depth and organizational resilience.
Equity also deserves reframing. Selling equity is not giving something up; it is creating alignment between G1 and G2. The multi-gen advisory firm with a shared ownership structure fosters accountability and continuity, which are essential for sustaining enterprise value. A successor is simply more motivated to grow the business if they have equity in what’s being built along the way.
Balancing Liquidity and Affordability
For the next generation, equity should be bought, not given.However, affordability remains a significant hurdle. Rising valuations and higher interest rates make debt-financed buyouts increasingly difficult. Founders can solve for this by structuring flexibility into their capital plans. For example, firms that are creative about engaging external capital partners, minority buy-ins, or phased transactions allow founders to access liquidity while preserving control and keeping the firm’s cash flow healthy.
The best structures balance liquidity for founders with affordability for successors. They create optionality and allow both generations to benefit from the continued growth of the firm rather than being constrained by a single transaction.
A Smarter Path Forward
The year ahead will favor firms that prioritize continuity, scale, and leadership depth. Entrepreneurial drive remains the foundation of the advisory profession, but scale and alignment will determine who thrives as capital and consolidation reshape the industry.
There are many options, but the one that is right for you will help you maintain entrepreneurial control by embracing succession early to monetize, grow, and remain independent on your own terms. Succession is not a goodbye. It is the next intelligent chapter in a business built to last.
