RIA leaders expect 2026 to mark another year of record-breaking deal activity for mergers & acquisitions, according to RIA M&A consultant DeVoe & Company.
DeVoe’s Annual RIA M&A Outlook released Monday found 54% of RIA leaders expect M&A volume to increase over the next 12 months, while 44% expect deal volume to remain steady. Only 2% of respondents expect deal volume to decline over the next 12 months, and this comes as 2025 was the most active dealmaking year on record for RIA M&A, according to DeVoe.
The previous RIA M&A annual record of 272 deals set in 2024 was passed in October of this year, according to DeVoe’s last report that projected 2025 to end with over 300 M&A deals. The latest report from DeVoe found 59% of respondents expect RIA firm valuations to remain steady over the next 12 months, with 33% expecting an increase and 9% thinking valuations will drop.
“Private equity and private lender-backed platforms offering 9-16x multiples on EBITDA continued to boost deals this year,” said Brian Meegan, partner at RIA industry law firm Kupfer. “The big players were still looking primarily at the larger EBITDA teams, leaving smaller and mid-sized groups to get picked up by smaller platforms. Increased use of the personal goodwill sale structure opened the market to advisors with significant client relationships that were not, themselves, independent.”
Among this year’s biggest M&A deals was mega-RIA Creative Planning’s announcement in October to acquire the $250 billion retirement-focused firm SageView. “I think if you hold the market steady, next year is going to shatter all records. Everyone's mind I think is going to be blown at what's about to happen,” Creative Planning CEO Peter Mallouk told InvestmentNews.
“We're going to start to see the $10 billion-plus, the $20 billion-plus firms transact at a level they haven't before,” Mallouk said for his 2026 predictions. “Now, the one thing that could set this back a little bit is the markets. If you have a bear market that goes on for more than two quarters, the market will completely and totally freeze. I think you'd see a 90% stall in activity. But otherwise, we're going to have a record-breaking year.”
More than 100 RIA executives participated in DeVoe's end-of-year 2025 survey, representing firms from $100 million to over $10 billion in assets under management.
Another trend to watch for Jessica Polito, founder of M&A advisory Turkey Hill Management, is how smaller RIAs are becoming increasingly attractive minority investment opportunities for private equity.
“I think for several years across the board, firms needed to have a minimum free cash flow of about $5 million before minority investors were interested in investing,” Polito told InvestmentNews. “Now that the landscape is so saturated, I'm having more and more conversations with firms that are interested in taking minority stakes in much smaller firms in the $700 million to $2 billion [AUM] range.”
Minority investments accounted for 14% of all RIA M&A transactions tracked by DeVoe through the third quarter of this year, marking the highest level since 2020. Private equity buyers value strong growth rates, management teams, and next-gen leadership personnel within smaller RIAs that could attract minority investments, Polito explained.
“I think the reason for the reluctance for private equity to invest in these smaller firms previously is because they're unproven entities. At $700 million, even at $1 billion, there's often not a C-suite, there's often not client segmentation or a well-defined growth strategy,” said Polito. “But I feel like I'm having a conversation a week with firms that are trying to enter the landscape to compete to invest in these smaller firms.”
Michael Belluomini, SVP of mergers and acquisitions at the RIA aggregator Carson Group, also sees a lower AUM bar for RIAs to grab attention from private equity. Bain Capital-backed Carson Group bought more than 20 RIAs in 2025, making it one of the most active acquirers in the space.
“Heading into 2026, we’re seeing private equity interest in the RIA space continue to widen, including firms south of $10 billion in assets that historically may not have been viewed as natural PE targets," said Belluomini.
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