Mother-daughter advisor duo avoids succession debt with sale to Bain Capital-backed Carson Group

When Carson Group agreed earlier this year to fully acquire Taylor Financial Group, the Bain Capital-backed mega RIA was providing a lifeline of financial relief for one New Jersey family.

Debbie Taylor, 58, founded Taylor Financial Group in 2000 as a women-owned advisory firm specializing in tax-planning services. She had grown the Franklin Lakes, NJ-based firm to managing $385 million in client assets. Nearing retirement age, Debbie considered passing down her firm to her 26-year-old daughter Caroline. However, doing so would have required Caroline to take out a multi-million dollar loan to cover operating costs. 

“Two-thirds of our family's wealth is tied up in the practice, which is an illiquid asset. So the stress on me as a founder was unbelievable, particularly over the last couple of years,” Debbie Taylor said. “I have two other children that are not in the business. If I give a discount to Caroline to take over the business, Carson would have funded her, but then Caroline has a huge financial burden to pay off this loan to Carson, and now she has two-thirds of our family's wealth on her shoulders.”

Rather than the loan option, Taylor Financial sold to Carson in late 2024 as the serial RIA acquirer's 10th purchased firm of the year. Debbie received an upfront cash payment to sell her firm, with Carson also offering Taylor’s 10-person team a one-year retention payment, a three-year growth (earnout) payment, and 30 percent to 40 percent revenue share of all new assets that Taylor Financial advisors were to add going forward.

Debbie, who's now a managing partner and chief tax strategist at Carson Wealth, also received “substantial equity upfront” through stock in Carson Group, which manages more than $40 billion in client assets. The sale to Carson has also covered administrative, HR, and technology resources for Taylor Financial, allowing advisors to spend more time serving clients. 

“The succession planning industry really assumes G2 (second generation) should sacrifice their financial stability to buy the practice, and that was terrifying to me - throwing a multi-million dollar wrench into my stable financial position at 26,” Caroline Taylor said. “I wanted my mom to be able to receive the full value for her life work, not just give me a discount so that I could afford it. And then I still have a huge loan and a lot of financial pressure - for me, the firm, the team, but also for my family.”

When the private equity firm Bain Capital acquired a minority stake in Carson Group in 2021, the RIA was valued at $1 billion and managed over $17 billion in client assets. As the firm has more than doubled its AUM since then, its founder Ron Carson stepped away from his CEO role last year. The presence of private equity in the RIA space was previously called a “mixed bag” by EP Wealth Advisors CEO Ryan Parker, whose firm has also rapidly acquired smaller RIAs.

Caroline is now director of wealth strategy at Carson Wealth and received stock in Carson as part of the sale of her mother’s firm. Unlike upfront stock payments given to business owners who sell their RIA to Carson, second-generation advisors such as Caroline are typically given performance-based stock payouts over a three to five year period. 

Debbie also says that Caroline received “better salary, better benefits, better PTO, sabbatical, growth paths within a large corporation” via Taylor Financial’s sale to Carson. 

“Most financial advisors went into the business 20 or 30 years ago, and none of us thought that we'd be selling to a firm like Carson for the dollars that we're able to sell for,” Debbie said . “Even five years ago, this was not something that was on the radar. We were not able to demand the premium for our practices that we're able to now,” she added. “What's really changed is private equity coming into this space with lots of liquidity and lots of desire to acquire these practices and help us become efficient.”