With two weeks to spare, RIA M&A activity hits new all-time high in 2024

With two weeks to go until the new year, 2024 has already proven to be one for the books in terms of RIA mergers and acquisitions.

That's according to a new data release from DeVoe & Company, which tallied deals for the year up to December 19 as part of the firm's long-running survey of deals.

Focusing on transactions involving at least $100 million in AUM, it said the RIA sector reached a new milestone this year with mergers and acquisitions hitting an all-time high of 269 transactions. That edges out the previous high watermark of 265 deals in 2023, the investment bank and deal consultancy firm reported Thursday.

Building on an October burst in dealmaking, the final quarter of 2024 has also been the most active on record, with 78 transactions announced so far.

DeVoe & Company pointed to several factors contributing to the deal frenzy this year. Aside from rising stock markets boosting valuations, it pointed to the reality of reduced borrowing costs as the Federal Reserve moves to cut interest rates, as well as stiffer competition among the industry's most major players.

“A record fourth quarter pushed a strong year into the ‘record year’ category,” David DeVoe, the firm's eponymous founder and CEO said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “The primary decision-drivers of sellers continue to be rooted in the benefits of scale and solving for succession.”

Some of the most jaw-dropping deals in the fourth quarter came this month, as some of the strongest and most prolific aggregators looked to finish the year strong with a last-minute rally in acquisitions.

On Wednesday, Summit announced a minority staking deal for Gordon Asset Management, a North Carolina-based RIA with $220 million in assets under management and approximately $1.1 billion in qualified retirement plan assets.

A day earlier, Corient, the US wealth subsidiary of Canada-based CI Financial, revealed a blockkbuster agreement to snap up H.M. Payson, Maine’s largest RIA with $7.9 billion in assets under management. That transaction, set to close next year, would represent Corient's first expansion into the state.

Prior to that, Lido Advisors advanced its own inorganic growth strategy with a deal for Avitas Wealth Management, a fellow LA-based RIA that oversees $1.1 billion in regulatory assets under management.