RIA M&A held near record levels in the third quarter of 2026, as financial advisory firms announced 125 transactions. The three largest, measured by the assets of the firms involved, were minority stakes in scaled platforms rather than outright sales.
The quarterly tally from Los Angeles-based investment bank ECHELON Partners matches the fourth quarter of 2024 and the third quarter of 2025. That makes it the second-busiest quarter the firm has recorded, behind the 142 deals announced in the first three months of 2026. Volume rose 4.2% from the 120 transactions announced in the second quarter.
Through September, wealth managers announced 387 deals. That is 12.2% more than the 345 announced over the same nine months of 2025. ECHELON now projects 510 transactions for the full year, which would break the 2025 record of 466. The latest tally period goes beyond the record pace set in the second quarter, when the bank was forecasting roughly 500 deals.
“Our goal is to move beyond counting transactions to explaining and anticipating them, and we look forward to helping owners navigate the next chapter of this industry," said Echelon CEO and managing partner Dan Seivert.
The number of large transactions fell even as overall activity held up, with 37 deals involving sellers reporting at least $1 billion in assets. That compares with 40 in the second quarter of 2026 and 52 a year earlier. Projecting from that pace, Echelon estimated a 175-deal finish for 2026, short of the 185 recorded in 2025.
Strategic acquirers accounted for 26 of the 37 large deals. Private equity sponsors announced 10, and a venture investor group announced one. All but one of the strategic deals in Q3 were structured as outright acquisitions, while seven of the 10 sponsor transactions were minority investments.
Wealth Enhancement’s landmark deal for $22.5 billion RWA Wealth Partners, announced at the end of September, was the quarter’s largest by a strategic RIA by seller assets. The firm announced nine deals in the quarter, which Echelon said put it ahead of any other buyer.
Corient also made waves with its deal to snap up $21 billion Summit Trail Advisors, one of four agreements it struck in Q3 that added a total of $29 billion in combined assets.
Measured by seller assets, deals also got smaller. Stripping out mega-outliers above $20 billion, the average seller managed $1.7 billion in the third quarter of 2026, down from $2 billion in the second quarter, though that's still up 50% from $1.1 billion a year earlier.
By assets, the three largest transactions Echelon tracked for the quarter were not sales at all. Merchant Investment Management bought a 25.9% stake in Australia’s Ironbark Financial Group, which the consultancy firm valued at about $66.6 billion after converting from Australian dollars.
There was also Hamilton Lane's move to fund a $270 million continuation vehicle for Savant Wealth Management, which oversees $57 billion. A continuation vehicle is a new fund a private equity firm sets up to keep holding a company from an older fund. It lets the original fund’s investors cash out while the firm stays invested. The deal underscored the rise of continuation vehicles as a new exit route for private equity backers of RIAs.
Carlyle also placed $600 million of hybrid capital into the $50 billion Prime Capital Financial via its global credit platform. Aside from buying roughly a one-third stake in the firm at an enterprise value above $1.8 billion, the deal allowed pre-existing PE backer Abry Partners to exit its position.
Investors announced 11 minority transactions in Q3 involving firms with approximately $224 billion in assets, which Echelon said is roughly triple the $73.9 billion in the second quarter of 2026. That contrasts with tracking by other firms, which unlike Echelon generally didn't include certain international acquisitions by US buyers as well as internal platform consolidations.
Sponsor money remains the market’s main source of capital, with PE firms taking part as a direct investor or buyer’s sponsor in 102 of the 125 deals in Q3.
The share of deals announced by PE-backed acquirers slipped to 73.6%, down from a peak of 75.8% in the second quarter. RIAs, meanwhile, announced a record 81.6% of all transactions.
Serial buyers are also shifting from collecting firms to integrating them. As Echelon noted, four of Hightower Advisors’ seven Q3 deals converted affiliated practices into its Signature Wealth channel.
"The share of strategic deals announced by a PE-backed buyer eased to 80.7% from an all-time high of 82.0%, as buyers without private equity backing announced 22 deals, up from 20," the report said.
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