Field note · August 2026

Why the best advisors get in before the close

A liquidity event isn't a single moment, it's a window. Months of negotiation, structuring, and decisions lead up to the day a deal actually closes, and almost every important financial choice gets made somewhere inside that window, not after it ends.

Tax structuring is the clearest example. Decisions like installment sale terms, trust formation, and how proceeds get rolled into new vehicles all depend on timing that's fixed well before a transaction closes. An advisor engaging after the close has already missed the decisions that mattered most.

The advisor who wins isn't the one who reaches out first after the news breaks. It's the one who was already in the room before there was news to break.

This is why owner referrals and post-close outreach are such a weak channel for advisors. By the time a deal is public, the planning window is already closing or closed. The advisors doing the best work in this space aren't waiting for announcements, they're finding owners while the deal is still being negotiated.

That requires knowing where transactions are happening before they're visible, which is a different skill than being a great advisor once engaged.

Being early is the entire edge. Everything after that is just doing good work once you're already in the room.

— Jesse Murdock, connecting advisors to transitions while they're still open.