The US registered investment advisor market posted its strongest six-month stretch on record for mergers and acquisitions, with 225 transactions involving firms holding at least $100 million in assets between January and June.
That figure marks a jump of nearly 40% from the 162 deals recorded over the same period in 2025 and puts 2026 on course to eclipse last year's already record-setting total, according to a new midyear report from Berkshire Global Advisors.
Momentum was front-loaded with the first quarter alone producing 124 deals, the busiest quarter Berkshire has ever tracked, up from 90 in the final quarter of 2025 and 83 in the opening quarter of last year. The pace eased somewhat in the second quarter, but 101 additional deals still made it the third-busiest quarter on record, bringing the six-month total to 225.
Berkshire's analysts point to a market being stretched from opposite directions at once.
Large, scaled RIA platforms are chasing bigger targets to bulk up assets, staff and capabilities, while the flow of smaller tuck-in deals has held steady thanks to the sheer number of independent advisory shops still available and the relative simplicity of folding them into existing operations. Firms in the middle of the size spectrum, meanwhile, are transacting at a consistent clip of their own.
The growth in bigger transactions stood out as one of the sharpest shifts from a year earlier. Twenty-six deals in the first half involved firms managing more than $5 billion, compared with 15 in the same window of 2025.
Berkshire attributes much of that jump to a recapitalization wave among large and mega RIAs, many of which took on outside capital back in 2020 and 2021 and are now approaching a natural point to revisit their ownership structure, whether that means bringing in a new financial sponsor, merging with a larger strategic partner or arranging another form of liquidity event for existing investors.
Firms preparing for a recapitalization or a strategic sale often have added incentive to keep growing, lift earnings and prove their own acquisition pipeline is still delivering results heading into that process, the report notes, which in turn feeds more deal volume into the broader market.
Carson Group led all buyers in deal count during the first half with 12 transactions, nine of which were internal consolidations, according to Berkshire's tally. Savant Wealth Management followed with nine deals, while Beacon Pointe Advisors, Hightower Advisors and Wealth Enhancement each closed eight.
Hightower's total included six internal consolidation deals. Cerity Partners and Merit Financial Advisors each recorded six transactions, and EP Wealth Advisors, Mercer Advisors and Waverly Advisors each closed five.
Private equity continues to dominate the buyer pool.
Sponsor-backed RIAs accounted for 85% of strategic acquisitions in the first half of 2026, a modest step down from the full-year 2025 figure but in line with the pattern of recent years, Berkshire found. The report credits the sector's recurring revenue, high client retention, room for operating leverage and a still-fragmented competitive landscape for keeping financial sponsors engaged.
Cash continues to be the preferred currency for most deals, particularly among sellers focused on succession planning or generating liquidity, though equity has become an increasingly common component, especially in transactions built around growth.
Sellers confident in a buyer's long-term trajectory are often rolling part of their proceeds into equity of the acquiring firm, a structure many buyers now require outright, as it can align incentives, support continuity and let sellers share in future gains.
Financings, minority stakes and recapitalizations also remained a meaningful part of the market, with 31 such transactions recorded in the first half, including seven involving platforms managing more than $10 billion. Berkshire frames this as a sign the consolidation cycle itself is maturing, as firms once backed by middle-market sponsors graduate into larger platforms weighing institutional capital, bigger sponsors or strategic mergers of their own.
Berkshire pointed to four structural forces sustaining the pace of consolidation rather than any single short-term catalyst: an aging population of advisory firm founders increasingly facing succession decisions, valuations high enough to make internal ownership transitions difficult to finance, client demand for broader, more coordinated services backed by better technology, and the rising cost of compliance, cybersecurity and general operations that continues to reward scale.
Looking ahead, Berkshire expects dealmaking to moderate somewhat from its record-setting start to the year but sees little chance of a meaningful slowdown given how embedded these pressures have become.
Large platforms are expected to keep pursuing scale, smaller tuck-ins should remain a steady source of deal flow, and a growing number of independent RIAs are building acquisition strategies of their own, adding further demand for capital through recapitalization activity. Consolidation, the report concludes, has shifted from being a cyclical feature of the market to a structural part of how wealth management firms plan for growth, succession and competitiveness.
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