To PE or Not to PE: What Every Advisor Should Know About Private Equity Offers (Ep. 35)

When Private Equity Calls: A Guide for Advisors Private equity has officially moved downstream. PE-backed aggregators that once targeted billion-dollar firms are now writing offers for practices with $150 million to $500 million in AUM, and many advisors are receiving these offers without having gone looking for them. In this episode, David Grau Jr, MBA. and Kristen Grau, CPA, CVA, CEPA cut through the headlines to explain what a PE-backed deal actually looks like from the inside. The conversation covers who these buyers are, how they structure offers, and why the classic idea of “selling and retiring” often does not fit the PE model. David and Kristen walk through financial normalization, recurring revenue debates, P&L preparation, and the often-overlooked reality that time kills deals. If you have ever been approached by a PE-backed firm, or think you might be, this episode gives you the framework to evaluate the offer clearly. SRG works exclusively alongside sellers in the M&A process, helping advisors get the right offers in front of the right buyers. Whether you received an unsolicited offer last week or you are thinking three to five years ahead, now is the time to understand the landscape. Show Notes PE-backed aggregators vs. direct PE: Direct PE investment goes to large enterprises (typically multiple billions in AUM). PE-backed aggregators have already taken that investment and are deploying it through acquisitions of firms as small as $150M to $250M in AUM. The seller profile is shifting: PE buyers want firms they can grow. The new seller profile is 50 to 70 years old — someone still willing to work and grow, not ready to retire in 12 months. Big multiples come with conditions: PE buyers may quote 10x to 12x earnings, but achieving that figure typically requires staying on for three to five years and hitting specific growth targets above current trajectory. Normalization can shrink your effective multiple: If you plan to leave post-sale, PE buyers add replacement comp back into expenses — often 25% to 35% of revenue — reducing normalized earnings and the effective payout. Know your numbers: Experienced buyers will cross-reference reports and look at client-level data. Sellers who do not know their numbers give buyers leverage to negotiate down. Clean your P&L before going to market: Remove owner-discretionary expenses, get onto a consistent tech stack, and track your financials quarterly for three to five years before selling. Best price or best terms — rarely both: A high purchase price often means more back-end risk and longer commitments. A lower cash deal with clean terms and a shorter transition may serve some sellers better. When you get an offer, pause: PE buyers are disciplined and experienced. They will create urgency. Pause, shop the offer, and call SRG before signing anything. Hosted By David Grau Jr., MBA (Founder / CEO) Kristen Grau, CPA, CVA, CEPA

Advisor Compensation: How to Pay Your Team the Right Way (Ep. 34)

The Compensation Conversation Your Firm Needs to Have Compensation is one of the most consequential levers in an advisory firmm and one of the most misunderstood. For years, firm owners relied on industry surveys to benchmark pay. Most of those resources are gone, and the ones that remain are pulling from data that is neither vetted nor reliable. At the same time, the firms themselves have grown and changed faster than their compensation models have. In this episode of The Fine Print, David Grau Jr. sits down with Julia Sexton, CVA, Director of Team Solutions at SRG, to work through what modern compensation design actually looks like for advisory firms. The conversation starts with benchmarking, where to find accurate data and why survey-based studies fall shortm and builds into a practical framework for structuring pay around the goals you have for your business, not just what the firm next door is doing. Julia walks through why production-based compensation creates silos even in firms that say they want collaboration, how to design different structures for farmers and hunters on your team, and why grid-based payouts that grow with market appreciation without added work put a slow choke hold on your margins and your firm’s value. The episode also covers eligibility criteria, career path design, and how to back-test any compensation change before rolling it out so your team barely notices the difference. Show Notes Compensation is the most powerful lever in an advisory firm — and one of the least examined. When the go-to industry benchmarks disappeared, many owners kept running compensation models they inherited from the wirehouse era without stopping to ask whether those models still fit where their business is headed. The data problem no one is talking about. The Investment News compensation study that the industry relied on for years is gone. What replaced it pulls from government sources with small, unvetted sample sets. SRG built its Talent Strategy Report from thousands of actual valuations, scrubbed, reviewed, and confirmed, because survey data and evaluation data are not the same thing. Location and firm size matter less than you think. Geographic pay premiums have largely flattened in a remote-first world. Firm size affects specialization of roles more than raw compensation levels. A smaller firm may actually pay more because fewer people are wearing more hats. There is no right compensation model, only the right one for your goals. Before designing anything, owners need an honest conversation about what kind of business they are building. An ensemble model built for scalability and enterprise value requires a fundamentally different compensation structure than a siloed model built around individual books. Production-based compensation creates silos, even in firms that call themselves a team. If advisors are paid on individual revenue, they will optimize for individual revenue. The incentive and the stated goal are working against each other, and compensation always wins. Farmers and hunters need different structures, not just different amounts. Farmers should be incentivized on assets serviced, net flows, and client satisfaction. Hunters should be rewarded for new business brought in. Putting a farmer’s compensation model on a hunter, or vice versa, produces exactly the wrong behavior. Grid-based payouts quietly destroy firm value. An advisor managing the same 100 households gets paid double seven years later because markets appreciated. The workload did not change. The complexity did not change. That margin erosion compounds over time and makes internal succession nearly impossible to structure. The BBP model: base, bonus, and profit. Splitting compensation into three buckets creates stability through salary, drives individual performance through bonusing, and aligns the team around long-term firm success through profit participation. Eligibility criteria, including fee schedule compliance, training, and client satisfaction scores, determine who gets access to the bonus bucket in a given year. Career path design is a capacity strategy. Progressively raising the minimum client tier an advisor is responsible for, and reducing their payout on smaller accounts, creates a natural delegation structure. Founders do not need to recruit expensive lateral hires. They need a junior advisor at the bottom of the org chart so everyone above them can move up. Back-test before you roll anything out. Run the new model against what your team actually made last year. If the output looks dramatically different, calibrate the levers before you announce anything. The goal is for the transition to feel like continuity, not a renegotiation. Hosted By David Grau Jr., MBA (Founder / CEO) Julia Sexton, CVA (Director of Strategic Organizational Planning)

The Exchange: Selling Your Advisory Business and What Every Owner Needs to Know (Ep. 33)

Navigating the Noise When It’s Time to Sell When you decide to sell your advisory business, you will be approached from every direction; aggregators, PE firms, broker dealers, and peers all ready to make an offer. The question isn’t whether demand exists. It’s whether you have the right team to make sure you’re getting the most out of it. In this episode of The Fine Print, David Grau Jr., MBA is joined by Kristen Grau CPA, CVA, CEPA, Parker Finot, and Ryan Grau CVA, CBA to break down what seller advocacy really means, where self-negotiated deals tend to fall short, and what advisors should look for when choosing an intermediary. You will hear why great offers never show up in the first draft, what the “auction” label gets wrong about the listing process, how some intermediaries secretly work both sides of the deal, and why getting a valuation three years before you’re ready to sell can change everything. Show Notes The noise every seller has to cut through. Aggregators, PE firms, broker dealers, peer buyers, and DIY platforms are all competing for your attention. The real question isn’t which offer to take — it’s whether you have the right expertise on your side to evaluate them properly. The risks of going it alone. Self-negotiated deals often skip NDAs, skip proper due diligence, and rely on one-page agreements that banks won’t underwrite. Sellers narrow their options to one or two familiar names and leave significant value on the table before negotiations even begin. Fit vs. price: the conversation has shifted. The industry long put fit above everything else. That’s changing. Price, terms, and taxes are increasingly driving decisions — and advisors who sell to the first familiar face often sacrifice all three without realizing it. Great offers never show up in the first draft. Eye-catching multiples often mask back-end payments tied to growth targets the seller has never come close to hitting. Knowing what to look for — and what questions to ask — is the difference between a good deal and a great one. The “auction” label is a buyer’s talking point. What sellers call a listing process, buyers call an auction to make it sound unappealing. In reality it is a confidential, structured process that lets sellers compare qualified buyers, protect their identity, and make a decision based on actual fit rather than whoever showed up first. Not all intermediaries are working for you. Some firms charge sellers a retainer while simultaneously collecting fees from buyers — limiting the pool presented and skewing the outcome. Ask who your intermediary is getting paid by and how many times they have transacted with the same buyers. Get your valuation done three years out. Waiting until you are ready to sell leaves no runway to improve your numbers, clean up your financials, or understand your KPIs. A valuation three years prior gives you time to act on what it tells you. Your business is your most valuable asset. Whether you plan to sell in two years or ten, giving the process the time and attention it deserves — with the right team in your corner — is one of the most consequential decisions you will make for yourself, your clients, and your family. Hosted By David Grau Jr., MBA (Founder / CEO) Kristen Grau, CPA, CVA, CEPA (Executive Vice President) Ryan Grau, CVA (Director of Valuations) Parker Finot (Director of Transaction Advisory Services)

What to Expect from M&A in 2026 (Ep. 32)

What to Expect from M&A in 2026 Valuations are at record highs, private equity is changing the game, and deal structures look nothing like they did five years ago. In this episode of The Fine Print, David Grau Jr. digs into the real numbers from 2025 and breaks down what they mean for advisors navigating M&A in 2026. Show Notes RIA valuations continue climbing. Revenue multiples averaged 3.27x in 2025, with 38% of deals closing above 3.5x. EBITDA multiples have reached nearly 10x. But higher valuations are coming with different terms than the industry is used to.   Higher profits do not always mean higher multiples. Firms with 45-50% margins often get lower multiples (6-7x EBITDA) because those margins signal underinvestment. The firms earning 11-13x are the ones reinvesting in staff, capacity, and growth — even though their margins sit closer to 25-30%.   Private equity is moving downstream. PE-backed aggregators are now making offers to firms doing as little as $2 million in revenue. The typical deal structure: 40% cash at close, 30% performance-based payments (tied to 10-20% CAGR targets), and 30% rolled equity in the aggregator.   The headline multiple is not the whole story. A 12x or 13x offer from PE sounds compelling, but only about 40% arrives as cash at closing. The rolled equity may be illiquid and aggressively valued. The real question: five years post-closing, did you actually come out ahead?   Internal equity sales hit record highs. Nearly a third of all transactions in 2025 were internal fractional sales — up from single digits historically. Financing was split roughly 50/50 between seller-financed and externally financed deals.   Phantom equity is surging. Stock appreciation rights (SARs) and liquidation rights are becoming mainstream succession tools, even for firms as small as $2 million in revenue. They help attract and retain talent, seed the next generation with economic value, and make future partners more bankable when it comes time to buy in.   Compensation models are shifting. Larger advisory enterprises are moving away from grid-based payouts toward base-salary-plus-bonus structures that better fit service-oriented teams.   Deal volume is expected to rise. Elevated multiples and increased PE activity are pulling more advisors off the fence. If you are a buyer, get your house in order. If you are a seller, treat your business like a home going on the market — make sure the curb appeal is there. Hosted By David Grau Jr., MBA (Founder / CEO)

The Exchange: What Advisory Firm Owners Get Wrong About M&A (Ep. 31)

What Advisory Firm Owners Get Wrong About M&A M&A activity in the financial advisory space continues to reach new highs, but many firm owners are entering deals with assumptions that quietly cost them time, money, and negotiating leverage before they have even started. In this episode of The SRG Exchange, David Grau Jr. leads SRG’s consulting team and General Counsel through a candid conversation on what firm owners consistently get wrong about M&A, from when to involve an outside team to how valuation methodology, entity structure, and equity sharing all factor into a successful outcome. You will hear why showing up “80% done” often means you have not really started, how appraised value and sale price are not the same thing, where market multiples landed in 2025, and why entity planning and equity sharing have become essential considerations for advisory firms of nearly every size. Featured in This Episode David Grau Jr., MBA (Founder / CEO) Parker Finot (Director of Transaction Advisory Services) Kristen Grau, CPA, CVA, CEPA (Executive Vice President | Seller Advocacy) Ryan Grau, CVA, CBA (Director of Valuations) Nicole Frey, CFP® (Director of Team Solutions) Julia Sexton, CVA (Director of Strategic Organizational Planning)

The SEC’s Marketing Rule Sweep: Endorsements in Advisor M&A (Ep. 30)

Endorsements and the SEC Marketing Rule in Advisor M&A Regulatory scrutiny is evolving, and RIAs involved in acquisitions or succession transitions are starting to see a new area of exam focus: how the SEC’s Marketing Rule endorsement provision may apply to certain client transition communications. In this episode of The Fine Print, Todd Fulks, JD is joined by Christine Ayako Schleppegrell, Partner at Morgan Lewis and former SEC attorney, for a timely discussion on what firms are seeing in exams and deficiency letters, and why this issue is emerging now. You will hear how a rule many advisors associate with testimonials and advertising is beginning to surface in the M&A transition context, and what firms can do to stay prepared. Featured in This Episode Todd Fulks, JD Christine Ayako Schleppegrell (Partner, Morgan Lewis; Former SEC Attorney) Guest

Organic & Inorganic Growth | How to be Successful with Both with Jeff Concepcion (Ep.26)

Organic and Inorganic Strategies for Financial Advisors In the fast-paced world of financial advisory, understanding the avenues toward sustainable business growth is crucial. The Fine Print Podcast recently featured an insightful discussion between David Grau Jr. MBA, President of Succession Resource Group, and Jeff Concepcion, Founder & CEO of Stratos Wealth Holdings. Their conversation explored the dynamic interplay of organic and inorganic growth, offering strategies and perspectives that every advisor striving for long-term success should consider. Introduction to Industry Challenges David Grau Jr. opened the dialogue by underscoring the importance of leveraging both organic and inorganic growth to build durable firms. Drawing from market valuation insights and succession planning, he highlighted how striking the right balance between these two growth engines can transform a practice from a traditional advisory business into a sustainable enterprise. Understanding Organic Growth Organic growth emerges from within a firm and relies on refining internal processes, optimizing referral marketing, and nurturing client relationships. Jeff Concepcion emphasized that organic growth should not be overshadowed by inorganic efforts. Instead, it should be treated as the foundation of a healthy business, with inorganic strategies serving as a complement. He also noted that organic growth can be a relatively low-cost, high-return strategy when firms apply discipline and creativity—whether through referrals, alliances, or using technology such as data analytics to uncover new opportunities. Inorganic Growth: The Acquisition Pathway The conversation then turned to inorganic growth, including mergers, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships. While this path often promises rapid expansion, Jeff Concepcion cautioned that it requires significant resources and should not serve as a substitute for organic growth. Rather, inorganic strategies are most effective when layered onto an already thriving business. Balancing the Two Growth Engines One of the most compelling points raised was the challenge of balancing growth strategies in the context of succession planning. David described how founders frequently worry that successors lack the ability to replicate their growth momentum. The solution, he argued, lies in preparing the next generation of advisors not just to maintain the status quo, but to innovate and lead new growth initiatives. Actionable Insights for Advisors Throughout the conversation, Jeff Concepcion shared practical advice for advisors looking to compete in today’s evolving marketplace. He stressed the importance of reinvesting in the business—whether through upgrading technology, acquiring top talent, or building infrastructure that supports scalable growth. By reinvesting strategically, firms can strengthen their organic growth engines while positioning themselves to take advantage of inorganic opportunities when they arise. This dual approach, he explained, is what ultimately creates enduring enterprise value. Conclusion: The Path Forward Looking to the future, Jeff Concepcion predicted increased concentration in the industry, with a small group of firms becoming notably large and influential. At the same time, he pointed out that new entrants continue to emerge, keeping the market vibrant and competitive. For advisors, this underscores the importance of tailoring growth strategies—both organic and inorganic—to their unique business models and long-term goals. The clear takeaway from this episode of The Fine Print: the path to building a successful advisory business is paved with intentional reinvestment and a balanced approach to growth. Whether through referrals, technology, or acquisitions, advisors who embrace both strategies will be best positioned to thrive in an ever-changing financial services landscape.

Balancing Act | Exploring Value and Terms in Deals (Ep. 24)

What’s the Deal with PE and Aggregators!​ (Ep. 23)

Watch the Replay Related Resources 2025 Advisor M&A Report Check Out our Press Release→ Succession Readiness Checklist Check Out the Checklist→ Selling Your Practice with Expert Advocacy  Watch the Replay →  Grab A Valuation We offer a variety of solutions and turnaround times to fit your needs. Join myCompass Our membership club grants you inside tips and opportunities to grow. Review our Seller Services We’re here to ensure you secure the best buyer, price and terms.

Contingency Planning | Death/Disability Considerations for Advisors (Ep. 21)