RIA M&A smashes deal record in 2025 despite shrinking buyer pool

A “new normal” in RIA dealmaking was reached in 2025 with a record-setting 322 M&A transactions, according to a new report from consulting firm DeVoe & Company. 

Total deals marked an 18% increase over the previous record of 272 announced transactions tracked by DeVoe in 2024. The average AUM for selling firms in 2025 was just above $1 billion. DeVoe’s data shows mid and large sized sellers grew their share of M&A transactions while deals for smaller RIAs below $500 million AUM dropped to 38% of all 2025 transactions compared to 46% in 2024.

“2025 redefined a “new normal” for M&A velocity,” reads DeVoe’s RIA Deal Book report. “After three years of ~65 transactions per quarter, transaction volume has swelled into the 70s, 80s and even 90s. Unlike other record years with one or two strong quarters that pushed a year into the record books, 2025 was consistently strong throughout the year.”

The rise in deal activity was driven by a consolidating market of buyers. Despite 2025 seeing 50 more transactions than 2024, there were 22 fewer buyers in 2025 as large-scale RIAs backed by private equity extended their M&A dominance The most active acquires in 2025 were Wealth Enhancement (17 deals), Merit Financial Advisors (13), Beacon Pointe (12), Mercer (11), Creative Planning and EP Wealth (10), Mariner (9), followed by eight deals apiece from CW Advisors, Focus Partners Wealth and Waverly Advisors. 

“2025 had 18% more sellers, yet 19% fewer buyers,” said David DeVoe, founder of DeVoe & Company. “The buyer pool is becoming more concentrated – with the leaders putting more space between them and the rest of the pack.”

RIAs that have made early moves in 2026 to buy other firms include Carson Group, Creative Planning, EP Wealth, Mariner, Mercer, Cerity, Modern Wealth, Merit, and Prime Capital Financial. Marc Cohen, chief growth officer at the independent broker-dealer LPL, told InvestmentNews that he expects RIA market consolidation to accelerate in 2026.

“Consolidation is going to continue. There's talk about whether or not it could continue at the pace that we've seen, I think it'll accelerate,” Cohen told InvestmentNews in December. “I think it will go faster.”

LPL itself has dipped into acquiring RIAs through moves such as its purchase of a minority stake in Private Advisor Group in November 2025. Cohen added that because many RIAs struck deals with private equity in 2019 and 2020, those investments are nearing their selling point this year. 

“If you think back to a little bit pre-covid, when some of those initial large volumes of investments were being made, you're at around five, six year tenure right now,” said Cohen. “You're going to see those properties traded, and that's going to accelerate some of the movement because you're going to have a new investor into these firms that's going to look to make their own mark.”

RIA database platform AdvizorPro analyzed thousands of publicly available Form ADVs to identify private equity backed RIAs that could experience an investment shift this year. Firms noted by AdvizorPro as being on that timeline in 2026 include Hightower, Rockefeller Capital Management, Lido Advisors, Wealth Enhancement, Osaic, Beacon Pointe, Mercer Advisors, and Edelman Financial Engines.