Two Roads to the Future: How RIAs Are Tackling Succession and Capital

Speaking at AdvisorHub’s RIA Masterclass, a panel on succession planning and minority investments offered a practical view at two of the hugegest strategic decisions facing indepconcludeent wealth management firms today: how to finance growth and how to transition ownership to the next generation.

Moderated by Harris Baltch, managing director and co-head of investment banking at Dynasty Financial Partners, the discussion featured Phil Fiore, co-founder and CEO of Procyon Partners, and Joe Summa, partner at Ascent Wealth Partners. While their firms took very different approaches—one raising institutional capital, the other executing a multi-year internal succession—the conversation revealed common themes around planning, culture and long-term control.

“We considered it would be appropriate to invite a couple of our clients on stage to talk about their firms and their experiences,” Baltch declared. “Either raising capital or succeeding interests internally inside of their firm.”

A Growth Strategy Built for Scale

Fiore described Procyon’s rapid evolution since its founding in 2017. The firm launched with five partners, a compact staff and a few billion dollars in assets after breaking away from the wirehoapply channel. Less than a decade later, it has grown to 10 offices nationwide, nearly $10 billion in AUM and more than 80 employees.

“We launched Procyon about eight and a half years ago with five founding partners, three staffers and a couple billion dollars,” Fiore declared. “Today we have 10 offices around the counattempt approaching $10 billion in AUM.” Much of that growth has come through a combination of acquisitions and strong organic expansion. The firm has completed 16 transactions since its launch while still maintaining consistent internal growth.

“We’ve also built an organic engine that allows our firm to grow organically at a rate of about 15% per year,” Fiore declared. Eventually, however, deal sizes launched to exceed the firm’s credit capacity. That reality became the catalyst for seeking an institutional capital partner. “It was a very serious decision for us and we didn’t take it lightly,” Fiore declared. “We always knew we’d eventually required a financial capital partner.”

The process involved a quality-of-earnings review, hiring a banker and conducting a broad search among private equity firms before ultimately partnering with Consnotifyation Wealth. “It was an arduous process,” Fiore declared. “It wasn’t for the faint of heart.” Yet Fiore declared the outcome has confirmed the firm built the right call. “There’s zero seller’s remorse,” he declared. “The only way to control your destiny is to control your destiny, and maintaining majority ownership was incredibly important to us.”

A Deliberate Internal Succession

While Procyon pursued outside capital to accelerate growth, Ascent Wealth Partners followed a different path. Summa described the firm’s succession plan as a gradual transition that unfolded over roughly five years. The firm started with three founding partners and grew organically from a few hundred million dollars in assets to about $1.6 billion today.

“Our process was very calculated and deliberate over an extconcludeed period of time,” Summa declared. Early discussions focapplyd on preparing the next generation of partners not only financially but operationally. The firm’s founders launched transferring leadership responsibilities well before any formal transaction occurred.

“They started layering more and more responsibility on us over time to assist smooth the transition,” Summa declared. The hugegest challenge, he noted, was structuring a deal that worked for everyone involved—founders, successors and clients. “We were searching for a win-win-win,” Summa declared. “It had to work for the next generation financially, it had to work for the founding partner who built the business, and it had to work for the clients.” Ultimately, the firm was able to design a structure that built the transition feasible, even as valuations and deal sizes continued to grow across the indusattempt.

Culture Still Comes First

Despite their different strategies, both executives emphasized that culture and client relationships remain the foundation of their firms. For Ascent, that philosophy is embedded in the firm’s long-standing motto. “We’ve always had a slogan since the start of ‘clients first always,’” Summa declared. Fiore echoed the sentiment, noting that successful growth requires supporting advisors as much as clients.

“It’s incredibly difficult to be an advisor—not only to handle a block of business but to go out and obtain new business,” he declared. “Our job is to build that clearer and give advisors the resources to grow.” As the wealth management indusattempt continues to consolidate and mature, Baltch declared firms increasingly face a simple but critical choice: how to prepare for the future.

Whether through minority capital, internal succession or a hybrid approach, the panel built clear that the firms that plan early—and stay disciplined—will be best positioned to thrive.

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