Prof G Markets · 2 min · Oct 23, 2026

Boomer retirements create succession openings for new owners

OZOwen Zidar · Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton University

Owen Zidar says private equity can be an exit, but some retiring owners prefer selling to a successor who will keep the business running.

In this episode

9:01 Some pass-through tax breaks do little to boost investment5 min
36:23 Business income can face lower taxes than wages4 min
14:20 Local rules shield incumbents from competition4 min
2:58 Private business owners explain half of the top 1%'s income-share rise4 min
50:58Boomer retirements create succession openings for new owners2 min

Up next · How I InvestValuation discipline can make venture firms miss power-law winners 5:08

“And so they would much rather have somebody follow in their footsteps for a few years, learn the business and sell it to them”

OZOwen Zidarat 52:36 · Prof G Markets

Takeaways

Private equity can provide an exit, but some owners avoid selling to it.
Some sellers prefer a successor who learns and continues the business.
Retiring owners may open cash-flowing businesses to younger buyers.

About this segment

Owen Zidar says private equity can be an exit, but some retiring owners prefer selling to a successor who will keep the business running. The retiring baby-boomer cohort may open ownership paths for younger operators.

OZ

Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton University

Ed Elson, Host

From “Meet The Millionaire Class That Really Runs America”, Oct 23, 2026. Watch the full episode

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

51:09
of private equity firms who are buying up a lot of these businesses that you have studied. You know, we've all heard the story about the PE firm that's rolling up HVAC companies or dental practices or veterinarian clinics, like all of these kinds of businesses that you describe. To me, private equity kind of goes hand in hand. To what extent has private equity disrupted this model? And to what extent has it made it more difficult, perhaps, for young people to become rich building these businesses on their own today?
51:43
I think it's a good exit option. And, you know, the way that I think that interacts is that if private equity comes in and say, find some opportunities to cut costs, and maybe make the quality of the product less, less favorable. So we tell an example of a restaurant where instead of providing high quality cheese, they, you know, substitute in a cheaper crappier cheese, then entrants might come in and say, hey, you know, this restaurant isn't what it was before.
52:14
Or like for my kids, pediatrician was bought by private equity and you can't see your doctor as much. And so you can imagine young doctors saying, hey, you know, we don't want that. We want to provide more services. And so I think there are some entry opportunities if private equity isn't doing well. But I think generally for young people, there's a tremendous opportunity to look at this older generation of baby boomers that runs businesses, and they want to retire, and some of them have private equity stigmatized, and they don't want to sell the private equity for all the reasons that people are worried about.
52:47
And so they would much rather have somebody follow in their footsteps for a few years, learn the business and sell it to them and have the confidence that that business is going to be around for another couple of generations and they'll do well by their employees. And so I think that is a real opportunity right now because there's a lot of people retiring or wanting to retire who have really good cash flowing businesses.
53:09
Final question.