What Happens to the G2 When the Senior Partner Won't Retire?

The short answer: A founder who keeps pushing back the date leaves the G2 waiting on equity, a title and the client relationships, while the G2's own years keep passing. Kestra's research among independent broker-dealer and RIA advisors found that fewer than half of G2s believe their founders are truly ready to retire, and 58% of the owners surveyed said it is difficult to give up control of the business they built. Start by asking for a written timeline. If the date keeps moving, compare the other paths while your working years are still ahead of you. What fits you depends on your book of business and on the agreements already in place.

This guide is for the G2 or junior partner whose founder keeps postponing retirement, whether you work at an RIA, inside an independent broker-dealer practice or on a wirehouse or regional team. Kestra Holdings commissioned the research from 8 Acre Perspective, which surveyed 269 advisors at independent broker-dealers and RIAs in October and November 2024, every owner among them planning an internal succession. Kestra calls these owners G1s, each a founder, partner or principal, and this guide says founder for short. Kestra summed up what it found as "a story of good intentions undermined by misalignment." Of the owners planning to retire within ten years, 69% were confident they would reach their succession goals, yet 94% had not pinned down at least one critical component of the transition, and only 6% had a fully documented plan. The two sides of the practice described the same plan quite differently.

Source: Kestra Holdings, Bridging the Gap, pages 5, 6, 8 and 15. Owner figures cover owners planning to retire within ten years, except alignment, which covers owners with a confirmed successor.

Why do founders keep moving the date?

Letting go is hard for many. In the Kestra survey, 58% of owners agreed it is difficult to give up control of the business they have built, 41% feared their clients would not be cared for as well after they left, and 38% were not sure what they wanted to do after retiring. One owner told the researchers, "It's hard to leave something that's part of you." Edward Jones and Morning Consult found a similar pattern in a July 2026 survey of 233 advisors: 61% of senior advisors said finding someone they trust enough to hand their practice to is emotionally difficult, and 71% of advisors agreed that the complexity of succession planning had caused them to delay thinking about it.

The calendar adds to it. Owners in the Kestra survey put the ideal start for succession planning at 6.8 years before retirement on average, and owners already in the process put it at 7.5 years, because once they are in the middle of it they realize it is going to take longer than originally expected. Cerulli's August 2026 release adds the scale: roughly 35% of advisors, who between them manage 40% of industry assets, plan to retire in the next ten years, and more than a quarter of that group express uncertainty about their succession plans.

The successor side of the table is crowded with interest. In the Edward Jones survey, 86% of junior advisors were interested in acquiring or inheriting a practice, and among senior advisors expecting to transition within five years, 38% had a specific successor in mind. For a G2 who wants the practice, that gap is a reason to ask early, and a founder who has named no one may simply not have finished thinking.

What does waiting cost the G2?

Three things pile up while the date slides.

Equity that waits. The first purchase usually waits for the founder's decision, and Kestra found that 41% of owners planning to retire within ten years had transferred any equity at all. One G2 quoted on Kestra's study page said, "it is frustrating that I've been with [G1] almost seven years, and nothing's formally put in place." Waiting also narrows the structure. Kestra's report lists among the costs of delay a decreased ability to structure the longer payout periods that often make ownership affordable for G2s.

Client relationships still in the founder's name. Households that still call the founder first tend to be the ones a G2 can count on least, whether the plan is an eventual buyout or an eventual move. Kestra's report lists a compromised client experience among the risks of delay, because owners run short of time to train successors and G2s run short of time to build rapport with clients.

A shrinking runway. The G2s in Kestra's survey averaged 44 years old with 17 years as advisors, and the owners averaged 56 with 24. A G2 in the mid-forties has a long working life ahead, and each year spent waiting is a year that could have built ownership somewhere. The mid-career advisor's window runs the math for years 10 to 20.

What are the signs the date is moving?

No single sign proves anything, and a founder can show several while sincerely planning to retire. Several together, over more than a year, describe a date that is drifting.

• No current valuation. Without one, nobody can price a first purchase of equity.
• No known retirement date. In the Kestra survey, 45% of G2s did not have a good sense of when their founders would retire.
• A plan that is spoken and never written. One G2 in the report described it this way: "He tells me I'm his succession plan. But there's a lot of holes with what we have."
• A role that has stayed the same. Kestra found that only 35% of G2s strongly agreed they felt fully prepared to assume leadership in their practice, and tied that to a shortage of leadership opportunities in running the business.
• A founder still building for a long horizon. New clients and new projects can be sound for the business, and they may also hint at the year the founder is planning around.
• Timing talks that get rescheduled. The conversation moves to after the busy season, then to after the next one.

What should you ask for?

Ask for three things in writing while you are still the successor the founder needs. First, a date for the founder's step-back, even a tentative one: Kestra's suggestions to owners include drafting a written succession plan with key milestones and setting a target transition timeline, even if tentative. Second, a statement of what happens if the date slips, such as a first equity purchase on a set date, with any change to that date made only by written agreement. Third, a yearly review of both, since Kestra recommends revisiting the plan annually to adjust for business or life changes. A tentative date leaves the founder room to change it by agreement, and that is an easier thing to offer than a promise.

The full list of twelve terms, from valuation method to buy-sell triggers, is in what a G2 advisor should negotiate before the founder retires. Have your own counsel read every document, and take tax questions to your own tax adviser.

What are your options if the date keeps moving?

A date that has moved more than once, with no written terms behind it, is the moment to compare. Three paths are open, and each carries its own paperwork.

Stay and renegotiate. Bring the conversation to the founder as a shared problem. Kestra found that G2s who strongly agree their owners do a good job involving them in succession planning and are open to their ideas are more than twice as likely to say they will definitely stay, so the founder has a reason to say yes. Propose a smaller first step: a minority purchase on a set date, a title that matches the work, and a view of the practice's financials. If the practice sits inside a wirehouse or regional firm, the firm's own succession program sets many of the terms, so ask for the current successor terms in writing.

Split the team. Partners who want different futures can separate, and the order of the steps matters for clients, revenue splits and enterprise value. Advisor team splits sets out how that sequence runs.

Move with your own production. A G2 can leave for a firm with a written path to ownership: an independent RIA, an independent broker-dealer practice, a larger team or a supported-independence platform. A hiring firm looks at the production credited to you, and accounts still coded to the founder may not count. Should a G2 advisor inherit the book or move works through how that choice changes once an inheritor agreement is signed. A move runs through your current agreements, including any non-solicit, so your own counsel reads them first.

Which clients would follow you?

That depends on who built each relationship and who the household calls first. What makes a book portable walks through the sorting exercise, and what percentage of clients follow their advisor to a new firm collects the research. Clients make their own choice, and FINRA's Regulatory Notice 22-23 confirms that a firm's or representative's succession planning decisions do not bind customers, who can transfer part or all of their assets elsewhere. How you may contact them depends on your agreements and state law, and that is a question for your own counsel.

No two founders postpone for the same reason, and no two G2s hold the same cards. What your book of business would command today, and what a written path to ownership could look like at other firms, are questions for a conversation, drawing on Winthrop's relationships and its record of past deals. Culture, technology, support and service vary widely from one firm to the next, and no table captures that. The firm pays Winthrop & Co., and the advisor never pays. Request an Introduction.