Three kinds of buyer. One of them has to sell you again.
| Private equity | Consolidator | Holding company (Kovrent) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hold period | Set by the fund's life. Typically a sale or recapitalization inside three to seven years. | Indefinite for the platform, but the platform itself is usually backed by a fund that recapitalizes on a cycle. | Long-term by design. No stated fund life, no redemption right, no provision that forces the sale of an operating firm on a schedule. That is what we mean by no fund clock. |
| Your brand | Usually retained, because the buyer is purchasing a business to sell rather than a brand to build. | Typically retired into the national brand, on a schedule set at closing. | Stays on the door and the letterhead by default. Changing it is your call, not ours. We are not building one brand out of many firms. |
| Who advises the client | Your team, under whatever the next owner decides. | Often your team, sometimes reassigned as service tiers and household minimums are standardized. | The same advisor who has the relationship today. No reassignment, no transition letter. |
| What forces a sale | The obligation to return capital to the fund's investors. | The platform's own recapitalization, which you do not control and may not see coming. | No fund term and no redemption right pushes a sale on a schedule. A sale would be a decision, not a deadline. |
| Where it wins | Price. A buyer underwriting an exit can often pay the highest number today. | Scale. National marketing, deep specialist benches, and a real answer if you want to hand off completely. | Continuity. The firm and the client experience you built survive the transaction. |
| Where it costs you | You will likely meet a second owner, chosen without you. | Your firm's identity, and some control over how clients are served. | The top of the market. We would rather be early than highest, and we will not win a four-bidder auction. |
2026 recapitalizations and sale processes.
These are firms that were bought once and are being sold or recapitalized again. None of this is a criticism of the firms. It is what a fund life does.
What actually makes capital long-term?
No stated fund life and no redemption right that pushes a sale on a schedule. The rest is a conversation: we walk you through the structure in the first meeting, in person.
Is a private equity buyer a bad outcome for my firm?
No. A buyer underwriting an exit can often pay the highest number today, and if price is what you are optimizing for, that is a rational choice. The tradeoff is that a second owner is part of the plan and you will not be the one choosing them.
What is the real difference between a consolidator and a holding company?
A consolidator merges the firms it buys into one operating company, usually one brand and one service model. A holding company owns them as separate firms. Consolidation buys clients depth a small firm cannot afford; separation keeps what made your firm worth buying.
Could Kovrent still sell my firm someday?
Nothing in our structure requires it on a schedule: no fund term, no redemption right. Any sale would be a decision rather than an obligation, and founders who hold Kovrent equity have information rights, so you would see the same numbers we do.
How much of the market is backed by private equity?
Most of it. Wealth management M&A is on pace for roughly 500 deals in 2026, the median target holds $733M in assets, and private equity sits behind about three quarters of the buyers. Source: Echelon Partners, 2026 [CONFIRM report title and date].
When are you the wrong buyer?
When you want the top of the market, when you want to be gone in ninety days, or when four bidders and a banker are already running a process. We would rather be early than highest, and we will tell you that on the first call rather than the fifth.
How do I check any of this?
Ask the same four questions of every buyer: whose money is it, how long can it hold, what forces a sale, and what will I be allowed to see afterward. A buyer who cannot answer those in plain sentences has told you something.