Still Independently Owned, and Why That's Getting Harder to Find
If you recently opened a statement from "Cetera Planning Partners" or something that had "CAP" in it, and had to think for a second about whether you'd ever heard of them...you might want to keep reading.
A lot of people in Johnson County are having some version of that experience right now. Kansas City’s wealth-management market has seen a noticeable wave of consolidation recently, with established local firms being acquired or joining larger national platforms.
Here's the short version: You didn't move your money. You didn't sign anything new. Your advisor may still the same person you've always talked to. What changed is who owns the firm they work for. Whether the new owner changes anything else, and when, is hard to say.
Why the name on your statement keeps changing
Independent advisory firms are being bought right now at a pace the industry has never seen. DeVoe & Company tracked a record 322 registered investment advisor mergers and acquisitions in 2025, an 18% jump over the prior record set the year before. The more telling number is the other one in that report: while the number of sellers rose 18%, the number of buyers fell 19%. More firms are being absorbed, by fewer and fewer acquirers. As David DeVoe put it, "the buyer pool is becoming more concentrated."
Underneath that is a demographic problem the industry doesn't like to advertise. Cerulli Associates reports that roughly 35% of all financial advisors (managing about 40% of industry assets) plan to retire within the next ten years. And roughly one in four of those advisors is unsure of their own succession plan.
Put those together and you have the whole picture. A large share of advisors are approaching the end of their careers without a clear plan for their clients, and a small number of very well-capitalized buyers are happy to be that plan. Private equity money, national aggregators, and broker-dealers building out their own advisory arms are all competing to buy the same books of business.
None of that is illegal, unethical, or even unusual. Some of these deals genuinely improve things.
Who's not in that deal? The client's household is the asset being transferred, and the client is the last to find out. You learn about it from a letter, or from a name you don't recognize on a statement.
What "independently owned" actually means here
Proper Planning & Wealth Management is independently owned. No private equity firm holds a stake. No parent company sets our revenue targets, hands us a house model portfolio, or decides what name goes on your statement next year.
We are affiliated with LPL Financial. LPL is our broker-dealer and the custodian that holds client assets. Our relationship with LPL gives us institutional-grade technology, research, trading, and compliance oversight -- real infrastructure that an independent firm can't build alone. LPL is not our owner. They hold no equity in this firm. They don't dictate our advice, and they can't rebrand us.
The two questions worth asking any advisor
Independence only means something if it holds up to two practical questions. Here are ours.
1. Who's actually doing the planning work?
We are. We don't oursource this to a piece of software or a person you've never met. Our advisors hold the CFP (CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™), ChFC (Chartered Financial Consultant), CRPC (Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor), and CRPS (Chartered Retirement Plans Specialist) designations.
2. What happens to me if something happens to you?
We have a written succession plan. In the event one of our advisors were unable to continue practicing, our team would continue servicing client accounts according to each client's established plan, using our unified system that includes asset management, client relationship notes, estate plan and tax documents on file, and financial planning data (among other things). We are supported by LPL's Succession Planning department. Continuity of your accounts and your plan does not depend on any one person being here forever.
If your statement changed names
Start by asking your current advisor three questions. A good advisor will answer all three without getting defensive:
- Who owns the firm advising me today, and has that changed in the last two years?
- Is my fee schedule, my service model, or my advisor's compensation changing as a result?
- If my advisor retires or leaves, who takes over my accounts, and is that in writing?
If you get a brochure instead of an answer, or a lot of reassurance and no specifics, that's worth a second opinion. We'll give you one at no cost and with no obligation, and if the right answer is that you should stay exactly where you are, we'll tell you that too.