Serial acquirers ‘shifting up market’ amid RIA M&A slowdown
DeVoe information reveals third-quarter RIA offers fell 19% as personal equity-backed consumers more and more goal companies with $1 billion-plus in belongings, says dealmaker Corey Kupfer.
As the RIA trade faces a reported 19% year-over-year drop in third-quarter M&A offers, one trade dealmaker factors to consumers turning into extra selective with their acquisition sizes as a prime issue.
“Numerous the serial acquirers, as a result of they’ve lined loads of geographies, they’re actually larger offers,” legal professional Corey Kupfer advised Asset placementNews. “That could be in line with the serial acquirers shifting up market. I feel you see that in different PE [private equity]-backed industries the place sooner or later the consumers begin specializing in larger offers.”
Kupfer, who based his eponymous RIA M&A legislation agency, categorised companies with a minimum of $1 billion in belongings below administration as reaching “larger deal” standing for acquisitions. New information launched from capital allocation financial institution DeVoe & Co shows that RIA M&A deal count fell 19% within the third quarter via Sept. 22 in contrast with the identical interval in 2025. The decline threatens to place an finish to the trade’s seven consecutive quarters of record-setting deal circulate tracked by DeVoe.
“The tailwinds within the impartial wealth management area are sturdy, they usually’re long-term tailwinds. During the course of this evolution of continued consolidation, you should have quarters the place there are fewer offers carried out. You could have quarters the place solely essentially the most premium belongings are being acquired,” mentioned Haig Ariyan, founder and CEO of Arax, an acquirer backed by personal fairness agency RedBird Capital Partners.
“That is the pure course of a extremely fragmented trade consolidating over a interval of a few years, not inside a brief window,” mentioned Ariyan. “But the best high quality companies are going to proceed to be very engaging to companies like Arax.”
Acquirers chase larger RIA offers
Data from the primary half of the 12 months reveals that the common dimension of RIA acquisitions has elevated. Acquired RIA belongings almost doubled within the first half of 2026, based on Fidelity’s midyear report, with total client assets involved in transactions jumping 88% to $343 billion. The median dimension of acquired RIAs rose from $517 million to $630 million in belongings below administration, Fidelity discovered.
Acquirers are additionally not discovering the cut price value wanted to justify shopping for smaller companies, provides Kupfer.
“I imagine that the a number of variations in valuation between the small offers and greater offers, should not as massive as you’ll suppose they might be,” added Kupfer. “I feel that the smaller offers, when these serial acquirers are it, they are saying, ‘I’m not getting that a lot of a reduction for the smaller offers, would possibly as nicely give attention to the larger ones.’ I feel that is an element as nicely.”
As of September 22, DeVoe discovered 72 RIA transactions had been introduced in the course of the third quarter, a 19% decline from the 89 transactions introduced throughout the identical interval in 2025. The agency attributed RIA dealmaking slowing down resulting from tariffs, the struggle with Iran, and different macroeconomic and geopolitical situations.
“I firmly imagine that we’re ready now the place a slowdown in M&A exercise will profit us as a result of that may present us a chance to keep up and strengthen the selective nature of the acquisitions that we make,” added Ariyan.
The PE query
RedBird is a majority investor in Arax, which manages $43 billion in consumer belongings. Private equity-backed buyers accounted for 89% of RIA M&A transactions within the first half of this 12 months, based on Fidelity.
Kupfer added that rising advisor opposition to selling to firms backed by private equity might be one other issue driving an M&A slowdown. He talked about listening to such suggestions throughout conferences hosted by the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA).
“There’s an rising frequency wherein I hear individuals asking the query, what are the alternate options to the PE-backed aggregators? What if I do not need to promote to a PE-backed aggregator?” mentioned Kupfer. “Numerous these of us felt very strongly that you simply could not keep the fiduciary obligation with the PE backed pressures.”
