RIA buyers are getting more picky. Here's what they're looking for

While no one is suggesting that wealth management M&A deals are slowing down substantially, registered investment advisory firm sellers do face a pickier market, according to experts.

In the first half of the year, the number of industry transactions fell 9% to 120 from their record pace in the first six months of 2025, even as the total client assets of RIA sellers soared by 88% to $342.9 billion, according to the biannual deal report compiled by Fidelity Investments. While the report noted that those numbers displayed the impact of "several marquee transactions" and none so far in 2026 to buy independent broker-dealers, dealmakers say that they also reflect buyers getting more selective about paying premium valuations in a competitive market.

The 6% increase in deals for firms with at least $1 billion in client assets in the first half demonstrated "a broader trend of assets and advisors concentrating among the largest firms," as well as showing how "size is one of many factors attracting buyer interest as firms take a more deliberate approach to dealmaking," according to William Bruckner, a vice president and strategic client consultant with Fidelity. At the same time, sellers continue to have "the space to thoughtfully consider cultural fit, client experience and long-term strategic alignment when choosing a partner for the next phase of their business," Bruckner said in an email.

"The diversity of buyers in the marketplace, including 13 first-time buyers in 2026, underscores that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' solution, as different buyers are seeking different qualities," he wrote. "That said, a demonstrated track record of organic growth, a strong talent profile and low integration risk are recurring themes that buyers continue to prioritize."

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Inside the M&A numbers

In addition, Bruckner pointed out that the median deal size jumped 22% to $630 million in the first half, which surpassed the range that the last Fidelity report described as "remarkably consistent" between $400 million to $600 million in recent years. One outlier was the accelerated dealmaking that happened in 2021 amid very low interest rates. 

This year, deals like alternative investment manager Carlyle Group's acquisition of a majority stake in RIA aggregator MAI Capital Management, Raymond James' purchase of asset management firm Clark Capital Management and the LPL Financial and Private Advisor Group deal to buy Mariner Advisor Network are boosting the typical size of industry transactions. 

However, the absence of any independent broker-deals like LPL's mega-acquisition of Commonwealth Financial Network last year pointed to the channel's "ongoing consolidation and a potentially shrinking pool of acquisition targets within the broker-dealer market," the latest Fidelity report said. So it's no wonder that the total volume of deals hasn't kept up with that of last year, which set a record of 276 transactions. 

In the first half of 2026, Savant Wealth Management completed nine deals as the most active firm in M&A, followed by Beacon Pointe Advisors with eight, and Wealth Enhancement, Cerity Partners and Mercer Advisors with five each.

"The ongoing success across the strategic acquirer space highlights the importance of offering a broad range of business models, financial options and cultural fits allowing firms seeking potential suitors to find the best fit for their founders, staff and clients," the report said. "Additionally, 12 RIA-adjacent business acquisitions were reported in H1 2026, highlighting the ongoing Chapter 2 movement of firms from traditional advisory practices into complex financial services enterprises."

At least a third of those deals involved tax and accounting firms that sold to wealth management firms, and U.S.-based RIAs acquired seven foreign companies as well. Minority investors like Elevation Point, Emigrant Partners, Accelerated Wealth Partners, and Merchant Investment Management struck 22 deals, and private equity firms or companies that they're backing accounted for 107 of the total of 120 transactions, or 89%. 

In sum, the M&A market remains a solid one, even if it doesn't set a record in the volume of deals this year.

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How prospective sellers should proceed

  
In that environment, three other wealth management M&A experts recommended that owners of RIAs and other advisory practices seeking a buyer should:

• Understand that acquirers are generally trying to find acquisition targets with strong organic growth rates outside of asset appreciation and M&A and/or new business lines and capabilities for the destination firm.

• Take care of steps such as cleaning the firm's data and ensuring that its base of clients is portable to a new firm before engaging in the dealmaking process.

• Think carefully about how they may fit into the possible new firm and adjust to a different phase of the business under new ownership.
  

Each of the dealmakers, though, emphasized that prospective sellers will not struggle to find potential buyers, just that they may not fetch the highest possible purchase price without the most desirable characteristics sought by acquiring firms.

Around a year ago, a "run-of-the-mill seller" that M&A advisory firm Turkey Hill Management founder Jessica Polito brought to 12 possible buyers would likely get "11 offers, and the 12th firm was apologizing for not being able to participate for one reason or another," she said. These days, the founder is more likely to receive seven or eight offers. 

So, while sellers can safely "go into a process assuming you can get fair-market value" for the firm, they can't know for sure that they have "chosen the right long-term partner for your business," Polito said. That means sellers ought to respond to that trend by getting a little bit more selective on their side as well.   

"Buyers are starting to focus more on what is truly additive or accretive to their business, outside of just additional revenue or additional cash flow," Polito said. "It's about being true to yourself and your beliefs and goals for the company. … It's human nature to just want to be liked, but if you're liked just because you're saying what the other side wants to hear, that does not make for a solid long-term relationship."

In other words, RIA owners should know that they're still operating in a seller's market, but buyers who have "a lot to choose from" are "really trying to lean into their ideal fit," according to Brandon Kawal, a partner at management consulting and transaction advisory firm Advisor Growth Strategies. The most active buyers may consider as many as 200 potential sellers before completing around 15 deals in a given year, he noted. 

They won't be abandoning their M&A strategy, but they will be assessing factors such as organic growth, key-person or succession risk, and whether the seller has developed a strong client niche. And those factors may each affect the others in some way, Kawal noted. 

For example, he suggested that the most important consideration "centers around your ability to grow organically," but getting too specialized with a firm's infrastructure as a means of catering to a niche of advisors or clients could hurt the valuation in the end with some acquirers. Other buyers may be seeking a particular specialty or a specific geographical base.

"It's ironic — the more down the fairway you are in how you run your business, at least from an operational perspective, that tends to be more valuable when a firm is trying to integrate you and merge you in," Kawal said. "There's not one way to do it. But if you look at your service mix, your talent, your general client experience and the types of clients you have and you put those together, those are the premium factors."

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The buyer's perspective

Firms with flat expansion rates, a problem with "heavy founder dependency" and issues with their data "could still find a buyer," — but likely not 10 suitors, according to Cameron Rosenow. As the vice president of growth strategy and a personal office advisor with Minneapolis-based NorthRock Partners, he leads the firm's M&A deals and serves as a planner after joining the firm more than three years ago under a prior transaction. The fee-only firm owned by Sammons Financial Group is approaching a size of $15 billion in client assets after completing about a half dozen M&A deals in the past 12 months.  

While the firm aims "to be incredibly open-minded to every advisors' situation" and still considers succession-focused deals, services like estate planning, tax and philanthropy do stand out in the pool of sellers, Rosenow said. As capital grows more expensive with interest rates on the rise, sellers who may, understandably, be wondering how to approach a market with "more credible buyers today than there has ever been" must keep traits like their organic growth, centers-of-influence networks and ages of their clients in mind, he said. But the dynamics driving industry M&A deals may change again in another six months.

"What ends up happening now is, there's a lot more pressure on these advisors' businesses to perform," Rosenow said. "You have to understand, am I buying a business or am I just buying a collection of clients?"