M&A activity snapshot
RIA M&A set records in 2025 and kept climbing into 2026. DeVoe & Company counted 322 RIA transactions in 2025, up 18% from 272 in 2024. DeVoe counts only acquisitions of RIAs with at least $100 million in AUM, so very small practices are outside its count.
The three main trackers define the market differently, and their counts should not be mixed. Fidelity tracked 276 RIA deals with $796 billion in acquired assets in 2025. Echelon Partners counted 466 wealth management transactions, up 27.3%, using a broader scope that includes deal types the others leave out.
The 2026 picture depends on which tracker you read. DeVoe recorded 167 RIA transactions through June 2026, the strongest first half on record. Echelon counted a record 262 transactions in the first half of 2026, against 220 a year earlier. Fidelity, by contrast, tracked 120 deals in the first half, a 9% drop, while acquired assets nearly doubled.
Fidelity and Echelon both show deals getting bigger. Fidelity's median acquired RIA rose from $517 million to $630 million of AUM, and Echelon's median target size climbed 16.6% year over year to $733 million in its Q2 2026 report.
The seller universe is large and mostly small. The Investment Adviser Association counted a record 16,544 SEC-registered advisers in 2025, plus 15,799 advisers registered with state authorities. The SEC total includes institutional and fund managers, not only wealth managers. Advisers focused on individuals averaged just 8 employees, 2 offices and $424 million in AUM.
Who is buying
Private-equity-backed firms dominate the buy side. Fidelity found that private equity backed 88% of all RIA acquisitions in 2025. In Echelon's data, PE-backed strategic acquirers completed 105 of the 185 deals for firms with $1 billion or more in assets.
The most active buyers are serial acquirers. DeVoe's top 2025 acquirers were Wealth Enhancement (17 deals), Merit Financial Advisors (13), Beacon Pointe Advisors (12), Mercer Advisors (11), and Creative Planning and EP Wealth (10 each). The top 10 acquirers completed 106 transactions, roughly one-third of all RIA M&A that year.
Behind those platforms sit large private equity firms, often as minority or shared owners:
- Wealth Enhancement Group: Onex joined TA Associates as an equal capital partner in 2021.
- Beacon Pointe: KKR invested, and the Beacon Pointe team kept over 50% ownership.
- Creative Planning: TPG took a substantial minority stake alongside General Atlantic, with the CEO keeping majority control.
- Focus Financial: taken private by CD&R and Stone Point at an enterprise value above $7 billion.
- Cerity Partners: about 30% owned by Genstar, 15% by Warburg Pincus and 5% by Lightyear, with just over 50% employee-owned.
The trackers disagree on whether the buyer pool is shrinking. DeVoe found 18% more sellers but 19% fewer buyers in 2025, with first-time buyers down to 8% of deals. Fidelity counted 102 total buyers in 2025, up from 82 in 2024. Both show repeat buyers doing a large share of deals.
What buyers look for
Buyers pay for revenue that will stay after the owner leaves. Advisor Growth Strategies lists premium attributes like healthy organic growth, an engaged second generation in a succession plan and simple investment operations. It flags key-person risk from aging ownership as a drag on value.
Recurring fee revenue is close to a requirement. In an AGS buyer survey, 80% of buyers chose a firm with $500 million in AUM, 12 employees, two owners and 95% recurring revenue as an ideal target. A similar-sized firm with 75% recurring revenue attracted no buyers.
Client consent is a deal mechanic unique to advisers. Every SEC-registered adviser's contract must provide that no assignment of such contract shall be made by the investment adviser without the consent of the other party. The statute defines assignment to include a transfer of a controlling block of the adviser's outstanding voting securities. A change of control therefore starts a client-consent process, and buyers watch how many clients sign on.
Talent is part of the asset. Schwab's benchmarking study warned that the RIA industry will need to add over 70,000 new staff over the next five years. Buyers want to know which advisors hold the client relationships and whether they will stay.
What makes a strong company
The Schwab benchmark sets a high bar for retention. Among nearly 1,300 participating firms, client retention has remained at 97% over the past 10 years. The same cohort saw median AUM rise 16.6% and median revenue rise 17.6% in 2024. Some of that growth reflects markets, so sellers should separate market gains from net new assets.
A firm positioned for the top of the range typically shows:
- Fee-based, recurring revenue close to the 95% recurring level buyers favored in the AGS survey.
- Organic growth from new clients and assets, not only market appreciation.
- A next generation of advisors who already own client relationships and have a stake in staying.
- A defined client niche or specialty.
- Simple investment operations that a buyer can fold into its own platform without rebuilding portfolios.
- Clean regulatory filings and advisory contracts that make the consent process straightforward.
Institutional clients add a newer diligence question. In 2026, the Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund cancelled its selection of Cerity Partners as investment consultant over concerns about private equity ownership. Firms with pension or public-plan clients should expect buyers to ask how those clients view PE ownership.
Valuation and deal structure
Multiples are at record highs, but the range is wide. Advisor Growth Strategies put the median 2025 RIA valuation at 11.6x EBITDA, up 5% from 2024 and over 40% since 2020. AGS also says a $500M AUM firm can expect outcomes ranging from 9x to 15x depending on how it is positioned.
Platform deals trade far higher and should not be read as a benchmark for practices. Echelon calculated that Madison Dearborn's $2.7 billion reacquisition of Wealthspire, Fiducient and Newport implied a TTM EBITDA multiple of 21.3x. That combined platform had roughly $100 billion or more in AUM.
Sellers increasingly take part of the price in equity. AGS found that equity consideration averaged 29% in 2025, with buyers anticipating 33% in 2026. A seller who rolls equity into a PE-backed platform takes on that platform's growth and its sponsor's eventual exit.
Minority deals are also back. Minority stakes accounted for 14% of all transactions in 2025 in DeVoe's data, after rebounding sharply over two years. The published trackers used here do not report a verified share for earnouts or cash at close, so those terms are best treated as deal-specific.
Because fees are charged on assets, valuation moves with markets. A market decline lowers AUM, revenue and EBITDA at the same time. Sellers with performance-based payments should expect that exposure to show up in what they actually receive.
Outlook
Trackers forecast that activity stays high. Echelon projects approximately 500 transactions for full-year 2026, which would surpass the 2025 record of 466. DeVoe says consolidators have regained market share and expects this trend to continue in 2026 and 2027.
Succession will keep sellers coming. Cerulli projects that more than 100,000 advisors will retire over the next decade, representing 37.4% of headcount and 41.4% of total assets. It also found 26% of advisors transitioning to retirement within 10 years are unsure of their succession plan. Those figures cover all financial advisors, not only RIAs.
Pricing looks steady rather than rising. In DeVoe's Q2 2026 survey, 82% of buyers expect valuations to remain unchanged over the next six months, and none expect an increase. With buyers moving upmarket, smaller RIAs will compete harder for attention. Documented recurring revenue, retained talent and a clear consent plan will matter most for them.
Own a wealth management firm or RIA? Run the valuation tool or see the full financial services M&A overview. See also: how PE buy-side mandates turn into acquisition pipelines.