Roughly 12 million businesses owned by baby boomers are expected to change hands over the next decade, representing nearly $10 trillion in assets, according to JPMorgan Chase's 2026 report, as covered by Yahoo Finance. Yet only 8% of owners say they have reached an advanced stage of planning, while 70% remain in the early stages. For the trades, the exposure is sharper. Approximately one-fifth of all electricians are over 55, according to Associated Builders and Contractors' 2026 workforce analysis as reported by Construction Executive. The largest transfer of wealth in American history is arriving, and the businesses most exposed to it are the ones that keep the country running.
The problem is not that these businesses are failing. It is that most of them were never built to be sold. According to FMI's 2026 update on ownership transitions, 58% of engineering and construction firm owners still do not have a formal ownership transfer plan, unchanged from the 2024 study that first identified the gap. Among owners planning to exit within five years, 51% have no defined strategy at all. A business without a plan is not a business.
