Ramax Search, Inc.

09/15/2026

𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗴𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 $𝟭𝟮 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝟰𝟬𝟭(𝗸).

Private markets have spent decades locked away from ordinary retirement accounts, reserved for pensions, endowments, and institutions large enough to tolerate years of illiquidity. That wall is coming down. As of March 2026, roughly $12.2 trillion sits in defined contribution plans, with $8.7 trillion of that in 401(k)s specifically, and private credit and private equity managers now have a real, regulator-backed path to it for the first time.

The timeline moved fast by Washington standards. An August 2025 executive order directed the Department of Labor to clear the fiduciary hurdles that had kept alternative assets out of 401(k) menus. The DOL's proposed rule followed on March 30, 2026, laying out safe harbors for plan fiduciaries around performance, fees, liquidity, and complexity. Final rules are expected by late 2026, with a phased rollout stretching over roughly three years after that.

Asset managers didn't wait for the ink to dry. BlackRock announced a 401(k) target-date fund carrying a 5 to 20% allocation to private investments, targeted for launch in the first half of 2026. Empower, the country's second-largest retirement plan provider, is working with Apollo to bring private assets into some accounts this year. The infrastructure is being built well ahead of the final rule.

For financial services, this isn't just a new product category. It's a new client relationship. Plan sponsors will need fiduciary guidance they've never had to give before. Advisors will need to understand illiquid, harder-to-value assets well enough to explain them to retail investors who have only ever owned mutual funds and index funds. Compliance and risk functions will need people who understand both worlds, retirement plan law and private market structuring, and that combination is rare today.

The money is already positioning. The talent to manage it responsibly is the part nobody has fully built yet.

09/14/2026

𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝟳𝟱% 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆.

Roughly $124 trillion is expected to change hands between generations over the next two decades, and women are projected to control or influence around 75% of it. That should be reshaping who runs financial services. It hasn't, at least not yet, and the gap looks similar across nearly every corner of the industry.

In wealth management, fewer than a quarter of RIA firms have a female owner or executive, and women make up only about 20% of advisors within the RIA channel specifically. In hedge funds and private equity, women hold just 15% of partner-level roles, a figure that has barely moved in recent years. In banking, women now account for about 18% of C-suite positions globally, real progress over the past decade, but still short of a third of the top table. In fintech, the gap is widest of all: women hold less than 13% of leadership roles as founders or executive board members, lower than their representation in either traditional banking or technology.

The pattern repeating across all four is the same one: it isn't a pipeline problem. Women are entering financial services in real numbers. What's thinning out is the path from entry-level to the room where decisions get made.

We talk to firms across all four of these segments who see this clearly and still can't quite solve it, who know the leadership pipeline is thinning the higher it climbs and aren't sure where the fix actually starts.

If the money is moving toward women, why isn't the leadership?

09/13/2026

𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗮 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱𝗯𝘆𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵.

The tax that triggered it hasn't even passed yet.

Proposition 40, California's first-in-the-nation billionaire wealth tax, qualified for the ballot on June 17, 2026, and goes before voters on November 3. If passed, it would impose a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of the state's roughly 250 billionaire residents, with residency measured as of January 1, 2026, months before anyone cast a vote.

That timing detail is what triggered the reaction. Because the residency date was locked in before the election, wealthy residents had every incentive to leave the state ahead of the deadline rather than wait and see. Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, who says he's been tracking departures among people he knows personally, claimed on social media that collective net worth leaving the state climbed from roughly $500 billion in early January to $1 trillion within weeks, an unverified but widely repeated estimate. Confirmed departures include Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, among others.

For an industry built around managing, advising, and growing wealth, the ballot outcome is almost beside the point if any meaningful share of that is accurate. The money moved before the vote happened.

Los Angeles and San Francisco remain real financial hubs regardless. LA-based firms alone manage more than $4 trillion in assets, home to names like Capital Group, TCW, Oaktree, and Ares.

A wealth manager's business is built on where clients live, not where a fund is domiciled. When high-net-worth clients relocate, the assets often go with them, and eventually so does the advisory relationship. Firms are already adjusting, some opening or expanding Texas and Florida offices, some advising clients on residency timing regardless of their own politics. None of that shows up in an AUM ranking. It shows up in where the next open role gets posted.

If wealth is already moving before the vote is even final, what does that say about how much confidence the industry has in where California is headed?

09/12/2026

𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗟𝘆𝗻𝗰𝗵 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘁 $𝟯.𝟱 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿. To Rockefeller and Morgan Stanley. It also won $1.9 billion from a rival in the same stretch. Same firm, same year, opposite directions.

Most recruiting coverage treats a win and a loss as two separate stories, a press release when a firm lands a team, a quieter mention when one leaves. Put side by side, they're actually one story: a firm's real net position, and it's a lot less flattering than either headline alone.

What's worth noticing is where the money went. Rockefeller was built specifically for advisors who want more autonomy than a wirehouse offers, and it still pulled a meaningful piece of that $3.5 billion away from one of the most recognized names in wealth management. Merrill's own $1.9 billion win doesn't come close to offsetting it.

If you only ever see the recruiting wins in a press release, you're only seeing half of what's actually happening to that firm's talent base.

What would change if firms had to report net advisor asset flow the way they report earnings?

09/11/2026

My Memories of 9/11

25 years ago today, I was on the phone with a candidate at ~9 AM who had just given notice. Mid-sentence, he said, "A plane just hit the World Trade Center."

My first thought was a small personal plane had flown into a building. I had no idea what was actually coming.

My office was on Madison Avenue and 32nd Street. I went to a neighbor's office to watch the news, and saw the second plane crash into the second tower. That's when I, and everybody else, knew this was something else entirely. As the day unfolded and more attacks were reported, an immediate fear was that the Empire State Building, a couple blocks away, or Penn Station, a few blocks the other direction, would be next. It was quite scary.

Manhattan went into total lockdown. People had no idea what to do, where to go, or how to react. People from downtown made their way to midtown covered in dirt, ashes, and filth, almost aimlessly. Everyone was frantic trying to locate loved ones, colleagues, and friends. I remember how kind everyone was to each other, even in the chaos, and in the days that followed.

My wife ran to pick up our 2 young kids at school the moment she heard. I was panicked I would not get home that day to reassure them I was ok. As soon as they opened Penn Station, I ran to be on one of the first trains out. All I wanted was to get home to my wife and kids.

In the days and weeks after, the city was under heavy security. It made you feel safer and more terrified at once.

As a service provider exclusively for financial services, I knew a lot of people who worked in lower Manhattan. Many made it out. Several, sadly, never did. Colleagues, co-workers, former classmates, clients, train friends. People I'd known for years. Gone in an instant. Leaving behind a trail of loved ones.

There was no business to speak of, so I stayed home, glued to the news, not knowing if more attacks were coming, or what was still safe. The unknown was terrifying.

One of my most vivid memories: for months afterward, makeshift missing person posters stayed up all over Manhattan, especially Penn Station. A grim reminder these people weren't missing anymore, they were gone. Sadder still were the families left behind, still hoping months later someone might walk through the door.

You always hear about the person who missed the train, or the elevator, or came in late that day, and made it home. You rarely hear about the one who just made it. That randomness has stayed with me. I could have been downtown that day. I could have been anywhere. Life is a gift, and it shouldn't take a day like this to remember that.

25 years later, so much has changed, and so much hasn't. The humanity I saw that day was real, people taking care of strangers, no questions asked. I wish we held onto more of that. There's still not enough sorrow in the world for the loss felt that day. Especially for those who lost spouses, children, and siblings, or kids who lost their parents.

We never forget.

09/10/2026

𝗔𝗴𝗲 𝘃𝘀. 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲: 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵 𝘃𝘀. 𝗟𝗶𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆

https://ramaxsearch.com/age-vs-experience-strength-vs-liability/

Ask a 60 year old what they really think of the 35 year old angling for their seat, and eventually you get the honest version: entitled, impatient, convinced three years of good numbers means they've earned what took someone else three decades.

Ask the 35 year old what they think of the 60 year old blocking the path, and you get the mirror image: coasting, overpaid, holding a seat out of habit rather than actual output.

Both sides are a little bit right about the other, and both sides are missing something important about themselves.

Financial services is feeling this collision earlier than most industries. The advisors retiring over the next decade are taking a significant share of the industry's assets with them, at the exact same moment firms are posting far more senior roles than entry-level ones, and losing a third of new hires within their first year.

Neither age is the liability. The firms getting this right aren't picking a side, they're pairing the two groups early enough that judgment actually gets handed down instead of walking out the door.

We wrote up the full data and where we think the real line sits, link in the comments if you want the deeper dive.

Which side of this tension do you see more often, doors closing too early, or judgment walking out the door too late?

Financial services is aging fast, but the entry-level pipeline is closing just as fast. Real data on the collision coming between opportunity and experience.

09/09/2026

𝗔 $𝟳 𝗕𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗘𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗜𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗜𝘁𝘀 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝘆𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗜𝘀 𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁.

A few months ago, Baker Tilly, backed by Hellman & Friedman and Valeas Capital Partners, merged with Moss Adams in a $7 billion arrangement that vaulted the combined firm to the sixth-largest accounting practice in the country. Private equity had almost no presence in accounting a decade ago. Today, according to KPMG Corporate Finance, 11 of the 30 largest U.S. accounting firms carry PE investment, and more than $50 billion has flowed into the sector in the past six years alone.

What I find interesting here isn't the size of the deal, it's the sector. Everyone expects PE money in energy, tech, healthcare. Nobody expected it in accounting, a business built on decades-old partnership models, steady fees, and almost zero glamour. That's exactly why it's worth watching: when private capital moves into the most boring, stable corner of professional services, it's a signal about where capital is willing to go next, not just what it's willing to buy.

Firms that take on PE backing suddenly need growth at a pace the old partnership model was never built for, and that pace shows up first in who they're trying to hire and how fast they need them.

If accounting wasn't safe from this, what corner of the industry still thinks it is?

09/08/2026

𝗔 $𝟯 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗜𝗔 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲: 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

Transcend Capital Advisors, a New Jersey-based RIA managing roughly $3 billion in client assets, is being acquired by Arax Investment Partners, a New York City rollup, in its seventh deal this year. Once the transaction closes, Transcend will file under Arax's regulatory paperwork, even as it keeps operating under its own brand day to day.

What I find interesting here: Transcend wasn't a wirehouse breakaway looking for a bigger platform. It was founded in 2019 specifically to be independent, built from the ground up by a group of wirehouse veterans who left the big firms to control their own business. Now, six years later, it's taking a check from Arax, a $43 billion rollup backed by private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners.

We see this pattern constantly at Ramax: firms leave the big institutions chasing independence, then sell that independence back to a different kind of big institution a few years later, one built by acquisition instead of headcount. The founders get their payday. What's less clear is what a client actually gets when the firm they chose for its independence quietly becomes a line item in someone else's rollup.

If independence has a shelf life, was it ever really about the client, or just about who got to own the decision?

09/06/2026

𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗲, 𝗔𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗞𝗞𝗥 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻'𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆'𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀.

Blackstone, Apollo, KKR, Ares, and Carlyle, the five biggest names in private markets, now manage a combined $1.5 trillion in permanent, evergreen capital. That's roughly 40% of their total assets, up from 35% just a few years ago. At the current pace, these five firms alone will be managing close to $5 trillion in permanent capital by the end of the decade.

This isn't one firm's strategy shift. It's an industry realigning itself. Private credit exploded in the first place because banks pulled back after the 2023 banking crisis, and buyout sponsors needed financing fast. Direct lenders filled that gap so completely that banks' share of large buyout financings collapsed from roughly 80% to under 40% in just a few years. Now banks are fighting to claw that share back, it's already recovered past 50%, and the competition for who finances the next wave of deals is only getting sharper. Meanwhile, the largest private equity managers aren't picking a side in that fight. They're building both books at once, betting that owning the deal and the debt behind it beats choosing one or the other.

For talent, that convergence is erasing a line that used to define entire careers. Professionals who spent a career purely on the equity side, or purely in credit, are finding that specialization alone is no longer the safest path. The people who understand how a deal gets financed and how it gets built are the ones every platform is now competing to hire, and firms on both sides are increasingly poaching across what used to be a hard boundary.

Is your firm still organized around one side of that line, or is it already thinking about the whole deal?

09/05/2026

𝗠𝗶𝗮𝗺𝗶 𝗛𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝘅𝗼𝗱𝘂𝘀: 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱

A few weeks back, we flagged a disconnect between the Miami hedge fund headlines and the actual headcount data. Citadel's new headquarters and the "Wall Street South" narrative made it look like finance was leaving New York for good. The filings told a different story even then.

New data from this spring confirms it's still playing out. Miami's skyline keeps growing, offices keep opening, but the city's count of senior investment professionals actually slipped year over year. Some multi-strategy funds are shifting more of their hiring growth to New York, Dubai, and Atlanta instead. Recruiters point to a simple reason: the pool of senior portfolio managers is finite, and most still want to stay close to the deepest talent and capital markets, which remain concentrated in the traditional hubs. Lawyers, developers, and landlords have been the clearest winners of the Miami buildout so far. The senior traders themselves are moving slower, and some aren't moving at all.

The lesson holds up better the second time around. A relocation announcement is a press release. Where a firm actually adds headcount two or three years later is the real signal, and right now, that signal still isn't pointing at Miami the way the headlines suggested.

If you're watching your own firm's location strategy right now, which one are you actually seeing: the announcement, or the follow-through?