Broker-dealers push deeper into RIA M&A as consolidators refinance

Independent broker-dealers are pushing deeper into RIA M&A. They are buying advisor practices, building employee-advisor RIAs and becoming acquisition competitors to national RIA consolidators, according to DeVoe & Company’s Q3 2026 RIA Deal Book. 

The San Francisco-based investment bank’s report, which found RIA deal volume fell 17% in the third quarter, ties the shift to an aging advisor base. Citing LPL Financial’s first-quarter 2025 earnings call, DeVoe notes that roughly a third of advisors are expected to retire or leave the industry within a decade, representing $14 trillion as broker-dealers adapt to keep these assets in-house as opposed to advisors selling to outside firms.  

“I think what you're seeing is obviously the robustness of the RIA model and the enterprise value opportunities there are significantly beyond what you’re seeing in the brokerage models,” said RIA M&A consultant Corey Kupfer. “The [brokerage] model is just not as profitable. It's not as valuable, in terms of multiples.” 

Broker-dealer succession playbooks 

San Diego-based LPL has acquired more than 75 practices since launching Liquidity & Succession in 2021, DeVoe said, and has opened the program to outside advisors. One analyst has estimated LPL could spend up to $800 million a year buying advisors’ businesses. In July, LPL bought Florida-based Good Life Advisors, which FINTRX ranked as the third quarter’s fifth-largest RIA deal by assets.

Cetera Financial Group formed Cetera Planning Partners in April, an employee-advisor RIA with roughly $19 billion in assets under advisement that it plans to expand through acquisitions. Scottsdale, Arizona-based Osaic grew its W-2 channel through its 2025 purchase of $13.5 billion CW Advisors and has since moved more affiliated practices into it. 

Florida-based Raymond James, which recently reorganized its succession and capital solutions unit, takes a lender-and-investor approach via practice-acquisition financing, minority equity and full-equity deals. DeVoe says IBDs are not yet as significant a force as the industry’s top acquirers, but they now compete with RIAs and consolidators for the same businesses. 

Sellers with more than $5 billion in AUM announced 41 transactions through September, already surpassing every prior full-year total, according to DeVoe’s report. Jessica Polito, founder of wealth management M&A firm Turkey Hill Management, says that founders nearing retirement is a driving sale factor of RIAs sized around $5 billion. 

“Larger acquisitions have not taken the place of smaller ones. We are still seeing an incredibly robust market for small and mid-sized independent RIAs,” added Polito. “My suspicion is that we will see a boom of announcements as we head into the end of the year for firms of all sizes. Buyers still achieve greater arbitrage on smaller deals and the need for acquiring talent has not gone away.” 

Smaller sellers, considered those under $500 million in assets, accounted for 36% market share this year through September, which was the lowest in DeVoe & Company’s tracking history.  

“For smaller RIAs, the takeaway is that you will not win by matching the biggest check. You win on vision, culture, and ownership,” said Eric Amar, co-founder and CEO of Accelerated Wealth Partners, a minority investor in RIAs. 

A separate new report from FINTRX tracked $100.9 billion in acquired RIA assets in the third quarter. According to FINTRX, about half of those assets came from two deals — Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s purchase of Neos Investments ($30 billion) and Corient’s agreement to acquire Summit Trail Advisors ($21 billion). 

“Two transactions making up more than half of reported Q3 acquired AUM tells me the total is concentrated, not that appetite has broadened,” added Amar. “Buyers are also getting better at judging quality through organic growth, advisor tenure, and depth of client relationships.” 

Consolidators refinance debt

Consolidators announced 129 transactions through September 2026, or 53% of RIA M&A deals, their largest share since 2021, according to DeVoe. Wealth Enhancement led acquirers with 16 deals, followed by Hightower with 15, Savant Wealth Management with 10, while Beacon Pointe and Corient did eight each. Another five firms, including Mercer Advisors and EP Wealth, announced five acquisitions apiece through September.

The biggest buyers are also reworking their debt. Mercer Advisors recently refinanced $1.9 billion of private debt in its first move into the broadly syndicated loan market. The deal cut its rate by 1.75 percentage points, and Mercer projects $35 million to $40 million in interest savings in 2027. 

“Lenders are comfortable with the asset class and the largest consolidators are maturing financially,” Harris Baltch, co-head of investment banking at Dynasty Financial Partners, said of recent RIA refinancing.  

EP Wealth Advisors took out a $400 million seven-year term loan and a $100 million revolver in September 2025. Beacon Pointe closed a $1.2 billion debt raise with $80 million earmarked for M&A, Citywire reported earlier this month. 

“Moving from private credit to broadly syndicated loans means the scale, recurring revenue and cash flow of these platforms now qualify for cheaper, longer-dated capital,” added Baltch. “The market is focused on structuring debt well, with longer tenors and lower spreads, rather than on whether debt is affordable at all.” 

Rates shift deal structure

The Federal Reserve’s 25-basis-point increase in September 2026 arrived after nearly every third-quarter deal was already in motion, so it did not cause the quarter’s activity slowdown, according to DeVoe’s Q3 2026 RIA Deal Book. Higher borrowing costs reduce a deal’s return unless the buyer pays less, commits more equity or acquires a faster-growing firm, DeVoe said in its report. 

“The incremental increase in financing costs is more than offset by the earnings margins RIAs generate. Take an RIA with 30% margins: if borrowing costs rise 50 basis points and the deal is 100% debt-financed, the added interest expense barely moves the cost of financing the acquisition,” said Baltch. 

Baltch and Polito both said higher rates are not affecting deal pricing. Polito said the change is showing up in how sellers are paid in deal structure between cash and equity payouts.

“Because it can be argued that issuing equity is cheaper than taking on debt at the moment, we have seen more purchase consideration—especially upfront payments—offered in buyer equity rather than cash. Where five years ago we may have seen 10-15% of deal value paid in equity, today industry standard is closer to 25-30%,” said Polito.  

The median deal size of acquired RIAs has held between $384 million and $476 million across all seven quarters since the start of 2025, when excluding transactions over $10B, according to FINTRX. 

“Where acquisition cost really matters at scale is when the debt begins to amortize. At that point, the question is how much principal repayment eats into the acquirer’s actual free cash flow, and that has a much bigger impact on deal economics than the interest rate itself,” Baltch added.