To begin, and on behalf of the entire GT Securities team, we wish you and yours a healthy, prosperous, and inspired 2026.
In my conversations with many of you over the past few weeks, there’s a sense that after several years of starts, stops, resets, and recalibration, the 2026 deal environment is finally lining up for independent bankers to truly thrive.
Here are three mindsets and focus areas I’m seeing from the top-performing bankers heading into ’26:
- Lean into Investor Relationships. I give this advice every year, but given the explosion of private equity and family office funds and capital sources, deepening existing and building new relationships with capital sources is a massive independent banker success factor.And…the hard truth in the age of AI is that the “work” of banking is disappearing. Research, modeling, buyer lists, even first-draft outreach are becoming automated and commoditized.
So when the tools are the same for everyone, the only real advantage left is human trust and relationship. Who takes your call. Who believes your judgment. Who will engage because they know you.
So block the time. Make the calls. Book the meetings. Re-introduce yourself. Because in a world where “work” is automated, the banker who most intentionally invests in relationships will win the best mandates—and keep them.
- Internalize These Good Markets. It may not materialize perfectly – risk and chaos forevermore lurk – but 2026 is shaping up to be a year where private markets deal confidence and activity stay high and buoyant.To be clear, deals got done in 2025. Over 75 deals closed on the GT Securities platform last year, representing a deal volume in excess of $1 billion, and only slightly down from 2024 record levels. Global M&A deal value surged to a near record $4.4 trillion, a 30% increase from 2024. And PE buyout transaction volume rebounded to roughly $450+ billion in 2025, the strongest year since 2021.
This all bodes well for ’26. Global PE dry powder remains close to record amounts, private financing markets are as healthy as they have been in years, and the valuation gap that slowed processes in prior years is continuing to compress.
So this is a year to lean into what I have seen the best-earning bankers on our platform do over the years aka 1) pursue the biggest deal opportunities possible 2) ask for the biggest fees possible (why not?) and 3) do everything and anything to reduce the time it takes for deals to get from mandate to close.
- Secondaries. Per MergerMarket in 2025 private-equity secondary volume exceeded $200 billion. Quite simply, the secondary market has moved from an “alternative” to a core liquidity pathway.PE LPs are more than ever using secondaries for portfolio rebalancing, liquidity management, and risk optimization, while GPs increasingly rely on continuation vehicles and structured solutions to preserve optionality and extend value creation. On the GTS platform, many of our biggest and best-paying deals continue to be secondaries pace, so the advice here is if you are not already get “secondaries educated” and / or connect and collaborate with banking colleagues that are!
Next month, I’ll share additional thoughts on sectors, geographies, and product types that are 2026 percolating on the platform.
The entire GTS team and I are excited and honored to work alongside all of you to make 2026 the Best Deal Year Ever.
Why Not Us? Why Not Now?