FA’ S 2026 RIA SURVEY & RANKING limited to banks and a handful of aggregators( many of whom were also backed by private equity).
Firms like Focus Financial Partners and Hightower dominated the deal flow. Typically, they took majority equity stakes in firms, but otherwise let the firms keep running the same way as before. Observers began questioning whether these buyers added any tangible value or simply collected cash flows on preferential terms; if profits suffered, the aggregators got their cut first. Critics said advisors sold majority interests in their firms and transitioned to a lifestyle practice or, in some cases, essentially retired on the job.
Then, at the turn of the decade, the pandemic spawned advances in technology at the same time many advisors were looking to retire for real. Acquisition deals took off, and they haven’ t slowed since.
In today’ s age of AI, scale has more advantages than it did a decade ago, according to Susie Cranston, president and CEO of Cresset Capital, a Chicago firm targeting the ultra-affluent. Just like adjacent professionals in the accounting and tax spaces, RIAs facing shortages are going to have to“ build and develop their own talent,” she adds.
About 19 % of the firms in Financial Advisor’ s 2026 RIA survey report that they have an outside investor, indicating the industry is open for more capital. But it also shows many RIAs don’ t want or need outside investors.
WHAT MOSTLY ACCOUNTED FOR YOUR ASSET INFLOWS IN 2025?
New assets from existing clients 21.40 % Assets from new clients 38.91 % Market performance 31.52 % Assets from mergers or acquisitions 13.64 %
“ Private equity has professionalized the business in some ways that are good,” says Peter Lazaroff, partner and chief investment officer of St. Louis-based Plancorp. But he also says that some RIAs are drifting further away from their core missions— say, when RIAs begin launching their own proprietary ETFs, something he calls a step“ backwards from what made RIAs great in the first place.” He considers proprietary products very difficult to justify in a world where there are more than 12,000 ETFs, or triple the number of publicly traded U. S. stocks.
The growing influence of PE in the space is also fueling firm valuations.“ PE-backed firms can pay very high multiples,” says investment banker David DeVoe, who runs his own firm out of Berkeley, Calif. If a firm manages $ 1 billion or more in assets, it“ should be getting [ multiples ] into the teens, even the high teens.”
And buyers are especially willing to pay up for fast-growing firms.“ For every 1 % that an RIA can sustainably grow faster, their valuation will increase roughly 7 %. So those who create a strong growth machine yielding, say, 3 % faster growth will receive a 20 % increase in their valuation,” DeVoe declares.
Even if a buyer is looking for only a minority stake, they are attaching more strings to deals. Many may demand certain rights giving them varying degrees of con-
WAS YOUR FIRM INVOLVED IN ANY SERIOUS MERGERS OR ACQUISITIONS TALKS WITHIN THE PAST THREE YEARS?
■ Yes 32.95 %
■ No 67.05 %
TOTAL AUM IN 2025 BY SIZE RANGE
SIZE RANGE
NUMBER OF FIRMS
2025 AUM( BILLIONS)
2024 AUM OF SAME FIRMS
% CHANGE
WHAT MOSTLY ACCOUNTED FOR YOUR ASSET OUTFLOWS IN 2025?
Assets withdrawn by retired clients 47.72 % Assets lost by clients who died 9.64 % Assets withdrawn by clients for personal use 29.80 % Assets withdrawn by clients who left the firm 15.52 %
>$ 1billion |
360 |
$ 5,125.87 |
$ 4,146.88 |
23.61 % |
$ 500 million < $ 1 billion |
99 |
$ 71.23 |
$ 58.27 |
22.24 % |
$ 300 million < $ 500 million |
24 |
$ 9.26 |
$ 7.70 |
20.15 % |
$ 100 million < $ 300 million |
25 |
$ 5.25 |
$ 4.47 |
17.48 % |
$ 50 million < $ 100 million |
2 |
$ 0.16 |
$ 0.15 |
11.41 % |
< $ 50 million |
6 |
$ 0.17 |
$ 0.14 |
17.57 % |
TOTAL AUM |
516 |
$ 5,211.93 |
$ 4,217.61 |
23.58 % |
ADVISORY FIRM CHARACTERISTICS
CATEGORY MEAN 2025 MEAN 2024 % CHANGE MEDIAN 2025 MEDIAN 2024
% CHANGE Number of client relationships 5,209.85 4,897.39 6.38 % 696.50 648 7.48 % Firm assets per client * $ 7,013,978.60 $ 6,366,249.60 10.17 % $ 2,330,697.26 $ 2,068,488.70 12.68 % Overall assets per client ** $ 1,938,759.13 $ 1,668,982.26 16.16 % NM NM NM
* A comparison of assets per client at each ranked firm. ** A ratio of total assets to total clients at all ranked firms. NM = not meaningful.
JULY / AUGUST 2026 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | 23