RIA assets under management (AUM) are growing the fastest for firms that are the most actively engaged in M&A activity, according to research released on Wednesday presented by WisdomTree, with data and views from market intelligence firm RIA Catalyst and The Compound Insights, the research and intelligence division of The Compound Media.
The average serial buyer had AUM of $32.5 billion in 2024, a 185% increase over the average serial buyer in 2019, said the white paper “The RIA Real Deal: What We’ve Learned from a Golden Era of Deal-Making.”
Opportunistic buyers, which the report defines as those pursuing smaller deals that are potentially reactive, had an average AUM of $14.4 billion at the end of last year, a 94% increase over the average opportunistic buyer in 2019, the report said.
It helps that many of the serial buyers are now backed by outside capital, which the report notes, enables them to bid on more acquisition opportunities at higher multiples than opportunistic buyers.
But RIAs that didn’t make any transactions only made net asset gains of 8.5% on average from 2022 to 2024 and had a 2.7% decline in the median, the report added.
“What surprised me most was the scale gap between business models,” Julien Baneux, CEO and Founder of RIA Catalyst, told WSR by email.
“What surprised me most was the scale gap between business models.” — Julien Baneux, CEO and Founder, RIA Catalyst
“Serial acquirers’ 3-year net-of-market AUM growth outpaced opportunistic buyers by roughly 2:1 and exceeded non-transacting firms by more than 10:1,” said Baneux, who wrote the report with Mark Bruno, Managing Director and Head of Strategic Advisory at Emigrant Partners, and Matt Cerminaro, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Exhibit A.
“That spread is widening as firms lean more heavily on acquisition over organic growth,” according to Baneux.
He added, “Equally important is how sharply organic growth has slowed: non-transacting sellers fell from 11.4% in 2019 to 8.5% in 2024, and transacting sellers dropped from 17.5% to 10%. Relying on organic growth alone is no longer enough; even sellers will need a micro-acquisition strategy to keep pace.”
A key ingredient for successful M&A is alignment – “alignment of culture, economics, and vision,” the report said.
The RIA firms that “thrive” most after a transaction are those that, the report said, “Have a shared vision for future growth, and alignment in their definitions of success,” and “share a philosophy around client service and client experience, thoughtfully retain key leadership and advisors, invest in organic growth strategies post-deal,” and “balance scale with personalization and autonomy.”
Baneux provided a prediction, telling WSR, “The wealth management industry is about to consolidate and expand at the same time.”
DeVoe & Company recorded 272 M&A deals last year but 675 newly registered RIAs, Baneux noted. “Through Q3 2025, there have been 242 deals and 550 new RIAs. More than twice as many firms are being created as acquired, signaling both fragmentation at launch and consolidation at scale.”
Jeff Berman, Contributing Editor and Reporter at Wealth Solutions Report, can be reached at jeff.berman@wealthsolutionsreport.com.
