October 22, 2025 • 17 mins
LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE on:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
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WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
Financial watchdog Chris Markowski issues a major warning to investors: private equity firms are targeting financial advisors, buying up small family-run firms at outrageous valuations, and setting the stage for another massive industry shakeup. He explains how this “demonic game of musical chairs” mirrors past Wall Street schemes — from hedge funds to the dot-com bubble — and why investors could soon be stuck in illiquid, overvalued investments they can’t escape. If your advisor just sold their business, this episode is a must-listen.
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
Financial watchdog Chris Markowski issues a major warning to investors: private equity firms are targeting financial advisors, buying up small family-run firms at outrageous valuations, and setting the stage for another massive industry shakeup. He explains how this “demonic game of musical chairs” mirrors past Wall Street schemes — from hedge funds to the dot-com bubble — and why investors could soon be stuck in illiquid, overvalued investments they can’t escape. If your advisor just sold their business, this episode is a must-listen.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact that we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Attention actong whatever investors, pay close attention. This is the
next big scam and this is directed towards investors that
are working with advisors brokers. This is a big deal.
We have been at the four People have been following
us for decades. We've been on top of every major
(00:37):
scam out there. I'm going to go back some twenty
something years ago, worrying about what's going on with hedge
funds at the time. I would constantly, constantly be invited
on free vacations and trips and private jets and go
golfing here and go to the Bahamas and do all
(00:57):
of this stuff with all these hedge fund guys looking
looking to have at it with my clients wanting me
to take positions in their hedge funds, and no, something
we just didn't do. Private equity, private equity, going back
about fifteen years ago, we would go after them based
(01:21):
upon what they were doing to various different corporations, bleeding
them dry, basically taking out debt, putting it on the
company's balance sheets, basically almost acting like a vampire, if
you will, going from company to company company. That model
got a little bit old for the past several years.
And I have alluded to this, I've talked about it
(01:43):
here on the show. My brothers and I we get constantly,
constantly pitched. We get offers to buy Markowski Investments and
what we have built for evaluations that are patently absurd,
(02:06):
patently absurd. Well, and how do I know this. One
of the things that we do at Markowski Investors, what
we've been doing for years, is we help we aid
older advisors in retiring. Again, not every shop out there,
not every family run shop out there, is as fortunate
(02:29):
as we are a family business. I work with my
brothers and again, you have to have by law in
our industry, you have to have a succession plan. So
we've been doing this for years and years and years,
and we have twenty five plus offices around the country. Now,
the multiple, the multiple in our industry historically is three
(02:55):
times three times, and that's that's on the high side.
And everyone's business is unique and different and how we
go about structuring various different retirement deals for our advisors
and the people that we bring on at Markowski Investments.
Over the past couple of years, things got nuts. Things
(03:17):
got nuts. Private equity entered the fold. Now many of
you and I get emails from people all the time,
especially when I start talking about the realities of private equity.
Many of you complain, I can't believe it. My veterinarian
got bought out by private equity. My plumber has gotten
buy it out. My hvac guy got brought out. And
(03:39):
you see this happening everywhere everywhere, and people are complaining
about now and now I have to use and APT
to sign up, and the prices have gone through the roof,
medical Clan all this stuff, and it's better problem. People
are not happy with the type of service that they
(04:00):
are getting now. These small little mom and pop trade shops,
family traditionally family run businesses were bought out at absolutely
obscene multiples. Obscene. You get private equity guy that comes
(04:21):
into the fold and says, you know, normally, let's say
a business that would get three times like ours, and
I offer ten twelve and wow, I mean that's a
big dollar amount. Now, I, like I said, we talked
(04:42):
about this last week on the program about easy money,
easy money and good money versus bad money. And when
I start getting offers and getting offers obscene multiples to
buyas and this is you know type of money where
it's you know, the size of the firm that we run,
(05:04):
it's it's astronomical what we could get paid. And we
tell them know every single time, you are you nuts?
Are you nuts? Take the money and run. You guys
would never have to work, your family have to work
another day in their entire lives. Yeah, But I also
(05:26):
I also have to look myself in the mirror, my
brothers and we all have to look ourselves in the
mirror and say, what do we do? What do we do?
We built our business on doing the right thing by
our clients, putting our clients interests first. How in the world,
How in the world can it always you know, a
(05:51):
multiple go from three times to ten to twelve times offered?
How is that possible? How are they going to make
that money back? Well, couple ways, okay, private equity, private
they call two and twenty. Okay, they take two percent.
They charge two percent on the assets that they manage,
(06:14):
and they take twenty percent of any increase in valuation
hedge funds. Same model, same model, two and twenty. So
if they were to buy Markowski Investments and let's I'll
just throw ten times multiple, they're going to put that
(06:34):
Markowski Investments on their books. They're going to charge two percent,
but they're going to charge two percent, and out of
ten times multiple, they're going to put evaluation at fourteen
fifteen times multiple, which is even crazier, absolutely nuts, So
they can make money basically bleeding people dry bit by bit.
Everybody's like, oh wow, look at this my value of
(06:57):
my private Look at it's gone up. Really hasn't really
gone up? Well again, try getting out, Try getting liquid
in these hotel Californias all over the countries. That's the
sense what they are check in can't leave Again. I
mentioned this, nineteen thousand private equity companies in the United States.
(07:20):
There are only fourteen thousand McDonald's in the United States.
With that being said, what's going to happen next with
nineteen thousand nineteen thousand private equity companies out there? Investors
(07:41):
want to get liquid, they want to get out. The
only way to get out is to find another buyer again.
We're going back to the demonic game of musical chairs
that we've been talking about for years. I am now
getting offers. I'm now getting offers where I'm getting phone calls,
(08:06):
I'm getting messages. Well, hey, you know Chris, you know,
I understand you don't want to sell. You know Mark,
well you hope for but why not take some money
off the table. Why not take some on the other side,
take some chips off the table, sell us fifty one
of Markowski Investments. What so, I'm going to give you
(08:28):
voting rights over my business, over my brothers and I
Why why are they so interested? Why are they so
interested in Markowski Investments? They want my clients? Okay, this
is this is how it's going to go down. Okay,
And this is again, this is a warning to all
(08:52):
of you investors out there that you have an advisor,
and your advisor starts talking to you about his succession
plan and he wants to retire or he already has,
he already has, and he sold his business to some
private equity outfit. You might not know. It's like a
(09:12):
roll them up type of a situation where you are
eventually you're eventually gonna get this great, great opportunity air
quotes here to invest invest in the company. You could
be an owner in the actual company that's managing your money. Yeah,
(09:34):
that's what's going to happen. Next. They are going to
slowly but surely get out all get liquid their investors,
original investors in private equity, and they are going to
put you into their junk at a ridiculous multiple where
(09:55):
it's not going to be worth it, and you are
going to lose. You're going to lose. These are small
businesses that were priced inappropriately. Eventually they're going to come
down to earth. That's just the reality. The numbers don't work.
(10:18):
I'm here to tell you this is exactly what's going
to happen. And you have to ask. You have to
talk to your advisor. You do again, certain advisors out there,
I don't know if they don't realize this is going
(10:39):
to happen. I do find that a little bit hard
to believe. If you're in the money management business and
you've been doing this for a period of time, you
should know the game of demonic musical chairs and how
it works. But when you're talking like I said, you're
talking a ten twelve times multiple. Uh. That is a
(11:02):
great temptation. That is a huge temptation. You're talking a
massive check, a massive check, and many advisors are gonna
have a tough time saying no, and like Punches Pilot,
I'm going to wash their hands of you and their
(11:27):
client base. Oh we set You know, I didn't break
the law. I sold it to this company. They promised
they're going to do the right thing. I you know,
once I'm out, I mean, I'm no longer responsible. You're
no longer responsible. You have a huge you don't have
a you don't have a massive responsibility. I'm saying, there's
two advisors out there that are actually thinking about this.
(11:49):
I know a lot of advisors listen to this show.
You don't have a massive responsibility. I want you to
think really hard about this about the people that you
have been servicing. You're just going to sell them off
to a private equity firm that you know, you know
is going to have to churn them and burn them
in order to make that investment worthwhile. You know this,
(12:13):
and you know what stage of the game we're at
when it comes to this demonic game of musical chairs.
You know it. The music hasn't stopped. And I'm, you know,
basically quoting the great financial film margin call. It's slowing. Okay,
(12:35):
hasn't stopped yet, but it's slowing. People want to get liquid,
and they were going to get liquid on the backs
of family off little small mom and pop office around
the country in the same way that they want to
get all these alternative investments inside for one k's, IRA's,
(13:02):
you name it. It's it's shameful, it really is. I again,
I saw this happen before, it's happening now. An example
that I brought up in the past that we told
everybody about this is back in the nineteen nineties. This
is when Morgan Stanley bought Dean Winter. I know I've
(13:25):
mentioned this before, might not remember, but uh, Dean Witter.
Dean Witter was a big brokerage firm in the country
and it was pretty much for the masses. They had
actual you know, Dean Witter offices you could find inside
Sears Roebucks around the country. I'm dating myself here, but
(13:46):
that's true. Morgan Stanley, Morgan Stanley was late to the
game when it came to the whole dot com boom.
They had a their their top equity person at the
time was a lit by the name of Mary Meeker.
So Morgan Stanley was late to the game. They got
involved heavy and you can go back. You can take
(14:07):
a look at all of the for lack of a
better phrase, dog shit, dogshitipos dot com I pos that
they were involved with. Okay, they get their white shoe
customers involved. Yeah, again, it's Morgan Stanley. They've got to
get them out the way that they were going to
get them out again. The demonic game of musical Chairs
(14:30):
was to buy Dean Winter, which they did and for
a while they put on a charade like it was legit.
We knew, we knew. I'm you know, this is before,
just before I had a radio show. Okay, I'm doing
guests appearances. I'm warning. I mean, I said, you know,
telling demoner, you are going to get screwed. Okay, Morgan,
(14:52):
Oh just look at this. Well, well we're playing with
the big boys now. Look at us. Oh yeah, we're
we're you know, now we're a part of Morgan Stanley.
Look at all the Look at all the great offerings
that we're gonna have through them. They actually changed the
ticker symbol at the time ms d W. Whatever happened
(15:16):
to d W? Oh yeah, they got wiped out. This
is gonna be the same pitch. Do you understand it's
gonna be the same pitch your advisor, Your advisor, he's
gonna play you know, the old Steve Miller song, take
the money and Run. He's gonna do take the money
and run. He's gonna tell you about this great and
(15:39):
you know, ri, You're gonna be in great hands. And
they've got all of these great technologies, and they're gonna
be able to get you involved in all of these
unique and different offerings that I wasn't able to do.
This is gonna be great for you and your family,
and you are gonna get f't Okay, not a matter
of if, it's a matter of when you are going
(16:01):
to get f't. Let you know now. I'm letting you
know now. If this has happened to you recently, your
advisor reached retire, sold you off to some big outfit. Okay,
get out, get out now. I have seen this before.
(16:29):
It's gonna happen again. Get out this again. They're getting desperate. Now,
they're getting desperate in the sense that they just want
to buy fifty one percent of my for Oh you
can stay on no, I could get that. I have
no say obviously, and what you do to my client
since I now only have forty nine percent and you
(16:50):
have fifty one percent? Do you think I'm stupid? I
said this? Do you think I'm stupid? I mean, you're
you're actually the offer you give me, you're insulting my intelligence. Okay,
oh yeah, well look at this. Look at the money
you got. You know you're gonna pay you for this.
I don't give a damn. I'll make more money tomorrow.
(17:13):
I don't need your bad money. I don't need it,
don't want it again. I'm gonna be continue hit on
this because I can hit my send and receive on
my email box right now. Offer offer, offer, offer, offer offer.
They're desperate, they're desperate. Just again advising you take my advice.
(17:39):
Don't take my advice. Okay, look at our track record,
look at the things that we have called. Don't be
a victim watchdog on Wall street dot Com
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact that we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Attention actong whatever investors, pay close attention. This is the
next big scam and this is directed towards investors that
are working with advisors brokers. This is a big deal.
We have been at the four People have been following
us for decades. We've been on top of every major
(00:37):
scam out there. I'm going to go back some twenty
something years ago, worrying about what's going on with hedge
funds at the time. I would constantly, constantly be invited
on free vacations and trips and private jets and go
golfing here and go to the Bahamas and do all
(00:57):
of this stuff with all these hedge fund guys looking
looking to have at it with my clients wanting me
to take positions in their hedge funds, and no, something
we just didn't do. Private equity, private equity, going back
about fifteen years ago, we would go after them based
(01:21):
upon what they were doing to various different corporations, bleeding
them dry, basically taking out debt, putting it on the
company's balance sheets, basically almost acting like a vampire, if
you will, going from company to company company. That model
got a little bit old for the past several years.
And I have alluded to this, I've talked about it
(01:43):
here on the show. My brothers and I we get constantly,
constantly pitched. We get offers to buy Markowski Investments and
what we have built for evaluations that are patently absurd,
(02:06):
patently absurd. Well, and how do I know this. One
of the things that we do at Markowski Investors, what
we've been doing for years, is we help we aid
older advisors in retiring. Again, not every shop out there,
not every family run shop out there, is as fortunate
(02:29):
as we are a family business. I work with my
brothers and again, you have to have by law in
our industry, you have to have a succession plan. So
we've been doing this for years and years and years,
and we have twenty five plus offices around the country. Now,
the multiple, the multiple in our industry historically is three
(02:55):
times three times, and that's that's on the high side.
And everyone's business is unique and different and how we
go about structuring various different retirement deals for our advisors
and the people that we bring on at Markowski Investments.
Over the past couple of years, things got nuts. Things
(03:17):
got nuts. Private equity entered the fold. Now many of
you and I get emails from people all the time,
especially when I start talking about the realities of private equity.
Many of you complain, I can't believe it. My veterinarian
got bought out by private equity. My plumber has gotten
buy it out. My hvac guy got brought out. And
(03:39):
you see this happening everywhere everywhere, and people are complaining
about now and now I have to use and APT
to sign up, and the prices have gone through the roof,
medical Clan all this stuff, and it's better problem. People
are not happy with the type of service that they
(04:00):
are getting now. These small little mom and pop trade shops,
family traditionally family run businesses were bought out at absolutely
obscene multiples. Obscene. You get private equity guy that comes
(04:21):
into the fold and says, you know, normally, let's say
a business that would get three times like ours, and
I offer ten twelve and wow, I mean that's a
big dollar amount. Now, I, like I said, we talked
(04:42):
about this last week on the program about easy money,
easy money and good money versus bad money. And when
I start getting offers and getting offers obscene multiples to
buyas and this is you know type of money where
it's you know, the size of the firm that we run,
(05:04):
it's it's astronomical what we could get paid. And we
tell them know every single time, you are you nuts?
Are you nuts? Take the money and run. You guys
would never have to work, your family have to work
another day in their entire lives. Yeah, But I also
(05:26):
I also have to look myself in the mirror, my
brothers and we all have to look ourselves in the
mirror and say, what do we do? What do we do?
We built our business on doing the right thing by
our clients, putting our clients interests first. How in the world,
How in the world can it always you know, a
(05:51):
multiple go from three times to ten to twelve times offered?
How is that possible? How are they going to make
that money back? Well, couple ways, okay, private equity, private
they call two and twenty. Okay, they take two percent.
They charge two percent on the assets that they manage,
(06:14):
and they take twenty percent of any increase in valuation
hedge funds. Same model, same model, two and twenty. So
if they were to buy Markowski Investments and let's I'll
just throw ten times multiple, they're going to put that
(06:34):
Markowski Investments on their books. They're going to charge two percent,
but they're going to charge two percent, and out of
ten times multiple, they're going to put evaluation at fourteen
fifteen times multiple, which is even crazier, absolutely nuts, So
they can make money basically bleeding people dry bit by bit.
Everybody's like, oh wow, look at this my value of
(06:57):
my private Look at it's gone up. Really hasn't really
gone up? Well again, try getting out, Try getting liquid
in these hotel Californias all over the countries. That's the
sense what they are check in can't leave Again. I
mentioned this, nineteen thousand private equity companies in the United States.
(07:20):
There are only fourteen thousand McDonald's in the United States.
With that being said, what's going to happen next with
nineteen thousand nineteen thousand private equity companies out there? Investors
(07:41):
want to get liquid, they want to get out. The
only way to get out is to find another buyer again.
We're going back to the demonic game of musical chairs
that we've been talking about for years. I am now
getting offers. I'm now getting offers where I'm getting phone calls,
(08:06):
I'm getting messages. Well, hey, you know Chris, you know,
I understand you don't want to sell. You know Mark,
well you hope for but why not take some money
off the table. Why not take some on the other side,
take some chips off the table, sell us fifty one
of Markowski Investments. What so, I'm going to give you
(08:28):
voting rights over my business, over my brothers and I
Why why are they so interested? Why are they so
interested in Markowski Investments? They want my clients? Okay, this
is this is how it's going to go down. Okay,
And this is again, this is a warning to all
(08:52):
of you investors out there that you have an advisor,
and your advisor starts talking to you about his succession
plan and he wants to retire or he already has,
he already has, and he sold his business to some
private equity outfit. You might not know. It's like a
(09:12):
roll them up type of a situation where you are
eventually you're eventually gonna get this great, great opportunity air
quotes here to invest invest in the company. You could
be an owner in the actual company that's managing your money. Yeah,
(09:34):
that's what's going to happen. Next. They are going to
slowly but surely get out all get liquid their investors,
original investors in private equity, and they are going to
put you into their junk at a ridiculous multiple where
(09:55):
it's not going to be worth it, and you are
going to lose. You're going to lose. These are small
businesses that were priced inappropriately. Eventually they're going to come
down to earth. That's just the reality. The numbers don't work.
(10:18):
I'm here to tell you this is exactly what's going
to happen. And you have to ask. You have to
talk to your advisor. You do again, certain advisors out there,
I don't know if they don't realize this is going
(10:39):
to happen. I do find that a little bit hard
to believe. If you're in the money management business and
you've been doing this for a period of time, you
should know the game of demonic musical chairs and how
it works. But when you're talking like I said, you're
talking a ten twelve times multiple. Uh. That is a
(11:02):
great temptation. That is a huge temptation. You're talking a
massive check, a massive check, and many advisors are gonna
have a tough time saying no, and like Punches Pilot,
I'm going to wash their hands of you and their
(11:27):
client base. Oh we set You know, I didn't break
the law. I sold it to this company. They promised
they're going to do the right thing. I you know,
once I'm out, I mean, I'm no longer responsible. You're
no longer responsible. You have a huge you don't have
a you don't have a massive responsibility. I'm saying, there's
two advisors out there that are actually thinking about this.
(11:49):
I know a lot of advisors listen to this show.
You don't have a massive responsibility. I want you to
think really hard about this about the people that you
have been servicing. You're just going to sell them off
to a private equity firm that you know, you know
is going to have to churn them and burn them
in order to make that investment worthwhile. You know this,
(12:13):
and you know what stage of the game we're at
when it comes to this demonic game of musical chairs.
You know it. The music hasn't stopped. And I'm, you know,
basically quoting the great financial film margin call. It's slowing. Okay,
(12:35):
hasn't stopped yet, but it's slowing. People want to get liquid,
and they were going to get liquid on the backs
of family off little small mom and pop office around
the country in the same way that they want to
get all these alternative investments inside for one k's, IRA's,
(13:02):
you name it. It's it's shameful, it really is. I again,
I saw this happen before, it's happening now. An example
that I brought up in the past that we told
everybody about this is back in the nineteen nineties. This
is when Morgan Stanley bought Dean Winter. I know I've
(13:25):
mentioned this before, might not remember, but uh, Dean Witter.
Dean Witter was a big brokerage firm in the country
and it was pretty much for the masses. They had
actual you know, Dean Witter offices you could find inside
Sears Roebucks around the country. I'm dating myself here, but
(13:46):
that's true. Morgan Stanley, Morgan Stanley was late to the
game when it came to the whole dot com boom.
They had a their their top equity person at the
time was a lit by the name of Mary Meeker.
So Morgan Stanley was late to the game. They got
involved heavy and you can go back. You can take
(14:07):
a look at all of the for lack of a
better phrase, dog shit, dogshitipos dot com I pos that
they were involved with. Okay, they get their white shoe
customers involved. Yeah, again, it's Morgan Stanley. They've got to
get them out the way that they were going to
get them out again. The demonic game of musical Chairs
(14:30):
was to buy Dean Winter, which they did and for
a while they put on a charade like it was legit.
We knew, we knew. I'm you know, this is before,
just before I had a radio show. Okay, I'm doing
guests appearances. I'm warning. I mean, I said, you know,
telling demoner, you are going to get screwed. Okay, Morgan,
(14:52):
Oh just look at this. Well, well we're playing with
the big boys now. Look at us. Oh yeah, we're
we're you know, now we're a part of Morgan Stanley.
Look at all the Look at all the great offerings
that we're gonna have through them. They actually changed the
ticker symbol at the time ms d W. Whatever happened
(15:16):
to d W? Oh yeah, they got wiped out. This
is gonna be the same pitch. Do you understand it's
gonna be the same pitch your advisor, Your advisor, he's
gonna play you know, the old Steve Miller song, take
the money and Run. He's gonna do take the money
and run. He's gonna tell you about this great and
(15:39):
you know, ri, You're gonna be in great hands. And
they've got all of these great technologies, and they're gonna
be able to get you involved in all of these
unique and different offerings that I wasn't able to do.
This is gonna be great for you and your family,
and you are gonna get f't Okay, not a matter
of if, it's a matter of when you are going
(16:01):
to get f't. Let you know now. I'm letting you
know now. If this has happened to you recently, your
advisor reached retire, sold you off to some big outfit. Okay,
get out, get out now. I have seen this before.
(16:29):
It's gonna happen again. Get out this again. They're getting desperate. Now,
they're getting desperate in the sense that they just want
to buy fifty one percent of my for Oh you
can stay on no, I could get that. I have
no say obviously, and what you do to my client
since I now only have forty nine percent and you
(16:50):
have fifty one percent? Do you think I'm stupid? I
said this? Do you think I'm stupid? I mean, you're
you're actually the offer you give me, you're insulting my intelligence. Okay,
oh yeah, well look at this. Look at the money
you got. You know you're gonna pay you for this.
I don't give a damn. I'll make more money tomorrow.
(17:13):
I don't need your bad money. I don't need it,
don't want it again. I'm gonna be continue hit on
this because I can hit my send and receive on
my email box right now. Offer offer, offer, offer, offer offer.
They're desperate, they're desperate. Just again advising you take my advice.
(17:39):
Don't take my advice. Okay, look at our track record,
look at the things that we have called. Don't be
a victim watchdog on Wall street dot Com
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Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.