'Don't think of consolidation as the end of independent advice. It isn't'

For independent advice firms today, it can feel as though private equity interest and the steady tide of consolidation are dominating the conversation. Those prone to pessimism might see the current market as a place in which good independent firms are bought, absorbed, and gradually stripped of the things that made clients trust them in the first place. The concerns from owners and senior advisers about private equity-backed consolidation reducing consumer choice speak to a real anxiety. That anxiety should not be waved away, because the wrong deal can prove the doubters right, but i...