I started my own practice almost sixteen years ago because I was tired of working for other people.
Not because I couldn’t work for others—but because too many of the places I worked were mismanaged, short-sighted, and transactional when it came to employees. Loyalty flowed one way. You could give a firm your best years, do strong work, and still be discarded like yesterday’s garbage once leadership changed or a spreadsheet demanded it.
That reality is what pushed me to bet on myself.
Over the past decade, consolidation in the 401(k) business has only magnified this problem. Firms got bigger. Platforms expanded. Market share grew. But the human cost was real. Talented people—people with deep plan knowledge, client relationships, and institutional memory—were suddenly expendable. Ten, fifteen years at a firm, and the farewell was a severance package and a calendar invite.
Some packages were generous. Some weren’t. All of them were final.
In baseball terms, they were put on waivers.
Waivers exist so a team can cut a player and obtain an unconditional release. No future obligation. No sentimentality. Just a clean break that says, “We’re moving on.”
If you’ve ever been “waived” in this industry—laid off due to a merger, restructured out, or told your role was redundant—remember this: you can’t keep good talent down.
Like cream, it rises to the top.
I’ve seen it repeatedly. People who were let go went on to build better firms, smarter practices, and more client-focused businesses than the ones that cut them loose. Some became consultants. Some launched TPAs. Some started law firms, advisory shops, or niche providers that now compete head-to-head with their former employers.
And they’re stronger for it.
Consolidation may eliminate positions, but it doesn’t erase skill, judgment, or experience. Those don’t vanish when an email account is shut off. They just get redeployed—often more effectively and with far more purpose.
If you’re sitting in that uncomfortable space after being waived, wondering what comes next, take it from someone who’s been there: this isn’t the end of your story. Sometimes getting cut loose is the push you didn’t know you needed.
You may not have chosen free agency—but free agency has a way of revealing who you really are.
And in the long run, the best players always find a roster.
