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“Aggregator” is a bit of a controversial word among RIA owners these days. Some love them, some don’t trust them, and many just don’t know what they think about them. In a basic sense, an aggregator is a purpose-built RIA with capital backing and a directive to acquire great businesses.
Understandably, there are stories that support all kinds of opinions. That said, very few advisors have gotten the chance to sit down with an actual aggregator and ask direct questions about private equity, culture, transitions, and life after a sale. That’s today’s discussion.
Jason Gordo is the president and co-founder of Modern Wealth Management, one of the fastest-growing wealth aggregators in the country. Since launching in 2023, Modern has grown to over $15 billion in AUM across 22 offices and 335 employees. I have known Jason for years, and when I had him on The Hunter Podcast, we went straight to the questions RIA owners ask me behind closed doors. If you’re an RIA owner within 5-10 years of an exit, I would strongly encourage you to give the full episode a listen, but here’s the overview.
(We’ve made minor adaptations to Jason’s responses to help his insights translate for easy reading.)
What’s Your Take On Private Equity’s Impact?
Steve: The industry has a complicated relationship with private equity. Some founders have done very well while others feel like they were sold something that did not deliver. What is your honest read on PE’s impact in this space?
Jason: “Everybody in this industry is wealthier today because of private equity. Without it coming in and professionalizing this space, bringing tools and technology, and funding the whole cottage industry that has popped up around this business… You have the conferences, the compliance infrastructure, the accounting and legal communities… None of that exists at the scale it does today.
Private equity has accelerated innovation, funded infrastructure, and created career tracks for next-generation talent at every level of a firm.
That said, not every private equity firm is equal. There are good ones, okay ones, and ones we all want to avoid. There are significant distinctions around the capital, when they enter the business, and who they enter it with.
If you have the right management team and the right firm at the right point of entry, PE is not coming in to run the business. They are literally just capital to fuel growth, expansion, and opportunity. That is what PE should be.
How Do Aggregators Impact Our Experience?
Steve: Every aggregator says the same things when they approach a seller: great culture, great technology, we will get out of your way. How does a founder know who is telling the truth?
Jason: The way we have stood out in a seller’s eyes is that we are a young team that has full-cycled businesses before. We run Modern like four managing partners, not as a CEO surrounded by a hierarchy. We have very specific lanes; we stay in them, and we operate well together.
The foundation of this business was simple: we wanted to build the firm we wanted to be a client of. We asked ourselves what lessons we had learned that were good and bad, who in the industry was doing something interesting that we could acquire or emulate, and what the firm would need to look like if we would be attracted to it as clients.
Here, people are given real career pathing and real opportunity to make a difference. Because there is no cult-like personality at the top, everybody gets to have a voice. We are not a good fit for everybody, and not everybody is a good fit for us.
What Happens To Team Members Post-Sale
Steve: What happens to the staff during transactions? What happens to the operations team, the next gen advisors, and the people who did not sign the deal?
Jason: I believe talent compounds just like capital. The equity markets help us compound capital, and I believe talent works the same way. The best investments we have ever made are in people.
We have over 150 employee shareholders. When firms join us, people get real career opportunities that simply did not exist in their prior firm. When you are in an RIA with $400M-$600M in AUM, there is often no path forward until the senior leader retires or steps away. That changes here.
I could name 30 or 40 people who have taken on roles that would not have been possible where they came from. Logan DeGrave, for example, had built a $225 million book on his own as a CFP. He stepped away from that book entirely to run our field management team and drive organic growth across the enterprise. Rachael Bellah was an operations person in one office and has since been promoted to run operations for the entire firm nationwide. These are real careers that were created because the firm scaled.
Where Do Valuations Go From Here?
Steve: Valuations are at historic highs. Are sellers being overpaid?
Jason: I think quality is the story, and that is what people miss. Elite firms deserve a premium, but everybody thinks they are elite, and they are not. Not all firms are created equal.
Growth, culture, retention, and leadership depth matter more than size. Just because you have a $500 million or a billion-dollar firm does not make you valuable. It is about culture, organic growth, retention, and whether you are investing in your team.
The firms that command the highest values are the ones that would be successful regardless of market conditions. Anybody can grow when markets are up. The question is whether you can attract new clients and retain existing ones when things get choppy.
There is a lot of money chasing bad deals right now, and that is what has pushed valuations up for firms that are not particularly strong. There is a buyer for almost every firm today, with something like 75 or 76 private equity firms backing our industry and another 40 or 50 wanting in. That creates a gold rush for sellers, but only the good ones should be transacting. I think you have a duty to yourself, your staff, and your clients to evolve your firm before you try to sell it.
What Should Founders Do To Prepare For Sale?
Steve: If a founder is thinking about going to market in the next three to five years, what should they be working on right now? What would make their business one that you would want to buy?
Jason: Net new assets (NNA). Not revenue growth. Advisors get confused by this because they say their revenue is up 18% year over year, but we do not care about that. We care about what your NNA rate actually is and how much organic growth you are really driving.
Beyond that, it comes down to the team around you, the platform you are on, the age of your clients, and how much runway is left in your book.
Do not make succession the buyer’s problem. If you want a market rate multiple, work on your next-generation advisor talent three to five years before you are looking to transact. If we come along and we are your solution to a talent problem you have not solved, you are not getting a market rate multiple. We have to go invest in that. We have to bring a team, re-platform the business, and build what you did not build. If you have not done that work, somebody has to do it, and it is going to cost you.
Where Are We In the RIA Market Growth?
Steve: What inning are we in in terms of the RIA market, and how long does this run of transactions last?
Jason: I think we’re still down in the bullpen. We haven’t even thrown the first pitch yet. There are 18 to 19,000 RIAs, and there are something like 300 new RIAs created every month. There are 300 to 400 transactions a year. So if we’re absorbing 300 to 400 a year and growing 300 a month, this is a growing industry.
At some point there’s a firm that’ll go public or three that’ll go public. That’ll reset valuations, that’ll reset the pace of transactions, but I think we’re in wide open blue water, and we’re just getting started as an industry.”
Gordo said it plainly: strong firms are going to transact, and the window is open right now. The full conversation is on The Hunter Podcast, and it is worth an hour of your time if you are anywhere near this decision. When you are ready to have your own version of it, with a team that has been on both sides of these deals for 20 years and knows the buyers Gordo is talking about personally, Gladstone is at https://gstoneinc.com/contact-us/.
Steven Clark is the Senior Managing Director and President of Search at Gladstone Group. He has conducted executive searches across the wealth and investment management industry for multiple decades. Reach him at steve@gstoneinc.com .
Modern Wealth Management, LLC (“Modern Wealth”) is an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Registration with the SEC does not imply a particular level of skill or training. The views and opinions expressed in this interview reflect the speaker’s perspective on behalf of Modern Wealth as of the date recorded and are subject to change without notice. This interview is provided for informational purposes only and is intended to offer general information about the firm, its business model, and its services. Nothing presented should be construed as personalized investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice; an offer to buy or sell any security; or a recommendation of any investment product or strategy. References to Modern Wealth’s services, experience, business model, or approach should not be interpreted as a guarantee of future performance, investment results, or client outcomes. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. For additional information about Modern Wealth, including its services, fees, and conflicts of interest, please review the firm’s Form ADV and Form CRS available through the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website.
Assets under management and other firm information are stated as of July 30th, 2026 and are subject to change.
Any benefits discussed may not be available to every client and will depend on the client’s individual circumstances. The firm’s services, fees, and investment approach may vary by client.