Sector depth used to be a differentiator. Now it’s the price of entry

I spend my days supporting deal teams at boutique advisory firms across a lot of mandates, and that line sums up a shift I’ve been increasingly seeing. Specialist advisors are pulling ahead and the role of the generalist advisor is declining. Renewables is where it’s easiest to see this shift right now in the United States.

Why renewables got harder, and specialists pulled ahead

For a while, renewables had strong tailwinds. Incentives were generous and capital was relatively easy to find. As he put it, you could fake it until you made it. Advisors didn’t need deep sector knowledge when the market was doing the heavy lifting.

That window has since closed. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, wind and solar projects that start construction after 4 July 2026 must be in service by 31 December 2027 to qualify for federal clean electricity credits. Treasury’s construction guidance then removed the 5% safe harbor for everything except small solar projects of 1.5 MW or less . Timelines got tighter, credits got harder to lock in, and projects that once looked straightforward now carry real risk on cost, timing and eligibility.

Capital has responded by becoming far more selective. Energy and power was the only sector to grow in Datasite’s Q3 2026 Insights , with deal kickoffs up 20% year on year in the Americas. Deloitte’s 2026 midyear power and utilities M&A update also shows record deal value in the first half, while volume stayed near historical lows. In renewables, Deloitte sees investors moving towards assets with higher execution certainty. Fewer deals and bigger checks mean less work to go around, and that work is going to advisors who understand the sector well enough to take the risk out.

What sets specialists apart

This raises an obvious question – what does “knowing what you’re doing” actually mean on a live deal? There are three tests that the deals still closing tend to pass. None of them is about having the right title or the right logo on the pitch book. Each one depends on how well you know the sector.

1. Funding has to clear. Lenders and investors are asking harder questions than they were a few years ago, about timelines, credit eligibility and what happens if the rules move again. An advisor who has spent years in the sector has usually heard those questions before and has answers ready. Someone newer to it is often working them out in real time.
2. Buyers have to be real. With fewer deals getting done, every buyer conversation matters more. Bringing credible buyers to the table means knowing who’s genuinely active, what they’ll pay for and what will put them off, and that kind of knowledge tends to come from time in the sector rather than a database search.
3. Policy has to be navigated. In renewables, the rules can shift between signing and close, and that’s now part of the job rather than an exception. When the construction guidance landed, wind and larger solar developers had roughly two weeks to start construction under the old 5% safe harbor before the stricter test kicked in.. Advisors who were close to the policy conversation had a head start on what that meant for their timetables. For others, it meant a scramble.

A pattern beyond energy

I might have filed all this under “energy is having a tough year”. Then I heard the same argument from a completely different corner of the market.

An advisor at a boutique that works exclusively in healthcare and biopharma shared a prediction for 2027. Decades ago, he said, bankers were generalists who’d take on almost any deal. Today, the most successful advisors pick a narrow lane and go deep.

Two advisors, two unrelated sectors, the same conclusion.. That’s what made me think this is bigger than renewables. For boutiques, sector depth has long been part of the case against the bulge brackets. What’s changing is how much weight it carries. It used to be a differentiator. Increasingly, it’s the price of entry. Renewables is simply where that shift has become easiest to see.

Where the next test may come

If the pattern holds, the next place to watch is where the capital is heading now. For the banker I spoke to, that’s data centers, and the energy needed to run them, where the tailwinds are strong. Buyers want to secure power directly rather than rely on the grid or long-term contracts. Amazon’s acquisition of up to 1.2 GW of shovel-ready solar and storage in Oregon reflects a shift from buying clean power through PPAs to owning it outright. Storage is drawing attention too, partly because its policy runway is longer. It keeps full federal credits for projects that start construction by the end of 2033 , and more than 6 GW of battery storage changed hands in the first half of 2026 , a record.

Where we fit

I’m not the expert in your sector; you are. Specialists win on judgement, and the process has to keep up with it. What my team at Ansarada brings is secure deal infrastructure built for the way specialist advisors run a process, and people who spend every day inside the market you’re working in: a process buyers trust, a clear read on which bidders are serious, and the control to hold competitive tension when the market isn’t doing you any favours.

Comparing notes

Sector depth isn’t a positioning line any more. It’s what separates the deals that close from the ones that stall.

If you’re advising in energy, infrastructure or any sector where the easy money has pulled back, I’d like to know whether this matches your experience. That’s what I’m hearing. What are you seeing? Let’s talk .