I think most people start their advisor search by asking about experience, fees, and performance. Those are fair questions, and we'd add one more: who will be sitting across the table from your family 30 years from now?
The industry is getting older. Cerulli Associates puts the average advisor at 57 years old in 2026, and its research shows about 35% of advisors, who manage about 40% of industry assets, plan to retire within 10 years. More than a quarter of those advisors are unsure of their succession plans, which means many families could face an unplanned handoff.
According toAltsWire's coverage of the report, only 18% of advisors plan for a junior advisor to take over, and Cerulli estimates that 71% of rookie advisors don't make it past five years.
Do you get what I’m saying?
What a Rushed Handoff Costs a Family
Retirement lasts for decades, and some of the biggest planning moments come late. A rushed handoff can cost a family in three ways:
The early retirement years. Income timing, tax planning, and Medicare decisions all show up at once. They build on years of knowing your equity, your deferred compensation, and your family.
A sudden loss. A health event or a death in the family can put a surviving spouse in front of big financial decisions fast. A team that already knows your family makes those decisions less lonely.
Your children. They will inherit more than assets. They will inherit a relationship, and whether it feels familiar or brand new depends on who is still at the table.
Trust like that takes time. A 34-year-old who is five years out of business school doesn't become the trusted voice in a family's financial life overnight, and the advisor training them needs time to do it well. When a practice changes hands in a hurry, you may meet your next advisor as a stranger, right when decisions about income, taxes, and legacy carry real weight.
Our 100 Year Vision
For many years, Vizionary was on a similar path. We were one advisor supported by a strong team, focused on delivering excellent service. As years have gone by, though, our vision has shifted, and we are practicing our own version of Envizion More.
In 2025, we were a team of 7. Today (November 2026), we are a team of 15. What happened? Why?
Our mission is to help clients Envizion More: to think across generations about the wealth they're building and to create 100-year impacts on their families, their communities, and the organizations they care about most. A 100-year impact takes a firm built to last, and that takes a team that can carry out the 100-year vision. Here is the process we follow:
Step 1: Hire on purpose. We bring people onto our service and advisory teams at a deliberate pace that gives each person room to learn.
Step 2: Learn how the work gets done. New team members start by learning how the work gets done behind the scenes.
Step 3: Sit in and support. Next, they sit in on client meetings and support service.
Step 4: Lead when ready. Only after that do they lead client relationships.
Step 5: Mix the generations. Our team spans multiple generations, so the experience in the room today works alongside the people who will still be serving clients decades from now.
We invest in culture the same way, through our team's development and time together, because a firm built to last needs people who want to be part of it.
The goal is long-term availability. A client in their fifties should have people who can serve them through their whole retirement, and their children should find familiar faces when their turn comes.
This is the Envizion More conversation. The usual question is who the best advisor is for you right now. The better question is who will be there for your family in 2056 and beyond.
Four Questions to Ask Any Advisor
Whether you work with us or with someone else, these questions are worth asking before you commit to a relationship that could last 30 years.
How is the team around my lead advisor built, and how many generations does it span?
If my lead advisor retired in 10 years, who would take over, and will I have met them by then?
Who would serve my spouse and my children if I'm no longer here?
How are newer team members trained before they lead client relationships?
Choose the Team That Will Still Be Here
Choosing an advisor is a choice about the decades ahead. That's the conversation we love having, not because we want to talk you out of the advisor you have, but because your family deserves to know who will be there for them. If you'd like to see how we think about continuity for your family, let's talk. You canschedule a time with our team here. Envizion More begins with a plan built to outlast any one of us.