The Great Refocus: Organic Growth in 2026 and Beyond

Organic growth has always been one of the clearest signals of long-term business success. 

When I began my career in equity research, a company’s rate of organic growth was a strong indication of a durable competitive advantage which was positively correlated with stock performance. Who wouldn’t pay more for a company that could grow from within by deepening relationships, expanding relevance, and compounding prior work? The challenge for researchers was spotting relative changes before everyone else did.  

In recent years, organic growth in wealth management has been a secondary consideration as strong market returns and M&A fueled strong nominal growth rates for everyone. That seems likely to change in 2026. And since organic growth is ultimately zero-sum, the question is for who – and how.  

I know from my research days that calling markets is a fool's errand. We also know private equity sponsors have a strong record when it comes to operations, and that they are also more price discriminating as M&A cycles mature. And while those may be factors, what makes me confident in calling an industry turn to refocus on organic growth in 2026 is the moment we find ourselves with AI.

Let’s face it, AI has a brand problem. As much attention as all the amazing things you can do with AI gets, the takeaway has often focused on efficiency and related loss – whether it’s the scarcity of specialized knowledge, jobs, or both. We see it differently. Our focus is on how increased capacity associated with time saving gets reinvested, as well as how more, better information enables good businesses to separate from the pack. 

Last week, my colleague Pat Gordon and I talked through the case for a refocus on organic growth in 2026, what we’re seeing across the wealth transfer ecosystem we serve, and how Luminary is helping high-net-worth focused advisors grow their businesses. All of which reminds of my early days in research where the question wasn’t what to focus on, it was all about who and how. 

Please read on for highlights of our conversation, or watch the replay and see our demo. Reach out to book a meeting.

Organic growth is well understood. Execution is not.

Within wealth management, drivers of organic growth are generally well understood. Firms grow when they:

• Win new business disproportionately 
• Increase share of wallet by delivering additional, relevant services
• Strengthen relationships across spouses, heirs, and future generations to improve retention 

The question then is, how to do this. Or, more specifically, what do clients care about that influences these outcomes. The answer, of course, depends. It depends on what type of client we’re talking about and the answer may change over time. 

At Luminary, our focus has always been on advisors to high-net-worth clients. We believe complexity presents more ways for advisors to add value. It also creates more needs for specialized data and applications to meet those needs, which is where we come in.  

Back to the question of how – there are a lot of surveys that shed light on the question of what high net worth clients care about, but why not ask ChatGPT since we’re talking about AI. We did, and here are the top five things we heard back.

• Integrated leadership — one trusted advisor coordinating investments, tax, estate, and key decisions
• Tax & wealth transfer — ongoing tax optimization and estate and trust planning
• Balance-sheet solutions — lending, liquidity, and cash management
• Custom access — bespoke portfolios, alternatives, and private markets
• Complexity support — business exits, equity compensation, philanthropy, and legacy

There are no real surprises in that list, although it’s worth noting that emphasis is on services and much less on investment or banking products than might have been the case in years past. And also that three out of those five relate to wealth transfer, proving that estate planning and wealth transfer hold significant potential for differentiation. 

Of course they do. These services are deeply personal, strategically complex, and tightly connected to a client’s long-term goals. When delivered well, they build trust, differentiate the advisor relationship, and create meaningful, measurable value. So if clients crave leadership here, what's getting in the way? 

Three constraints limiting wealth transfer service scale

There are three workflow bottlenecks which make wealth transfer advice and insights challenging to deliver on a scalable, repeatable basis.  

First, estate data remains locked in legal documents. Ownership provisions, fiduciary appointments, and distribution structures are defined precisely, yet they are rarely translated into structured representations that persist across engagements. As a result, each review begins with interpretation rather than refinement.

Second, coordination occurs segmented across multiple professionals, each working within their own materials and processes. Advisors, attorneys, and CPAs bring deep expertise, yet alignment depends on communication cycles instead of a shared representation of the estate.

Third, planning workflows often take the form of one-off pushes, structured around specific meetings or deliverables instead of an ongoing planning cadence. Visualizations, summaries, and analyses are created for the moment and then archived. Without continuity, insight develops in pockets rather than accumulating across time.

Why the moment is now for AI as growth driver

Major shifts in the adoption of new technology tends to follow a familiar arc: early curiosity, inflated expectations, disappointment, then real transformation.

Artificial intelligence is no different. Much of the early focus has been on generalized tools that promise productivity gains but rarely change how work actually gets done. Those tools can be helpful, but they tend to plateau quickly.

The real impact comes when technology is embedded directly into domain-specific workflows, and is designed around how professionals actually work, rather than bolted on as an assistant.

In trust and estate planning, that distinction matters enormously. This is not a domain where generic automation suffices. The work requires context, judgment, and precision. This is why wealth management is approaching a genuine inflection point — because specialized AI finally allows expertise to scale. But not all AI solutions are the same. 

The Luminary solution: Tailor-made for advisors

In our discussion last week, Pat demonstrated what this shift looks like when AI native infrastructure is purpose-built for trust and estate planning. We focused on advisor use cases, in particular. 

The starting point is the documents themselves. Advisors upload trusts, wills, amendments, and related materials, and Luminary’s Estate360 framework translates the underlying information into a structured, comprehensive household-level representation of a client’s estate plan. Ownership, fiduciary roles, beneficiary designations, governing provisions, and dispositive terms are organized into a consolidated, cohesive view.

This directly addresses the first constraint: static data. Instead of insight living only in PDFs and notes, the estate structure becomes structured, dynamic data that persists.

This foundation enables coordination. Because the estate framework is centralized, advisors can easily collaborate with expert colleagues, as well as attorneys and CPAs with whom they share a client. Document summaries, entity relationships, and ownership structures are visible in one place, improving clarity around what has been reviewed and what requires action. Tasks can be assigned and tracked within the same environment, reducing the reliance on parallel email threads and disconnected files.

Most importantly, workflows begin to compound. With the estate structure defined, advisors can layer in asset values, growth assumptions, and transfer strategies directly onto that foundation. Scenario modeling, projected tax exposure, and wealth transfer outcomes are evaluated within the context of the existing estate framework. Reviews build on prior work rather than restarting from zero.

This continuity is what allows estate planning to scale across a broader segment of a firm’s client base. Client experiences are no longer confined to isolated engagements; they become embedded in the firm’s ongoing workflows from prospecting to taking long standing relationships to the next level.

The path forward

Firms across every industry recognize the value of organic growth. What changes in 2026 is the introduction of purpose-built technology and the ability to pursue and scale levers to growth once thought of as impossible. 

For advisors focused on high-net-worth families, the opportunity this year and beyond is clear as it is exciting. 

Get in contact with a member of our team to find out how we can help you scale organic growth with Luminary.