Alaris banker warns slow AI adoption could lower RIA sale multiples

Slow AI adoption could cost RIA owners money at the negotiating table, banker Allen Darby warned at AdvisorHub's 2026 Advisors to Watch Conference in New York City, according to AdvisorHub's report. Darby's firm, Alaris Acquisitions, advises wealth firms on selling. He described AI as a force that could change how buyers value a practice, particularly for owners who wait to sell.

Median RIA valuations reached a record 11.6 times EBITDA in 2025, according to Advisor Growth Strategies data cited in the report. RIA transactions hit a high-water mark of 142 deals in the first quarter of this year. "This is the best market RIA owners have ever seen as a seller," Darby said.

The mechanism he described runs through headcount. A buyer that sees a selling firm without AI may judge it overstaffed, given how much more efficient the practice could be. Rather than cut revenue-generating advisors, that buyer would lower the offer, Darby said. The reverse can also hold: an acquirer may treat an inefficient firm as a chance to plug in its own AI-optimized model and lift margins. Which reading a seller gets depends on who is bidding.

Darby cited Carson Wealth data showing advisors using AI served 18% more households, measured by time saved on meeting preparation and other administrative tasks. Work that took an hour and required checking six systems now takes five minutes, he said. Advisors are also using the tools on recommendations and to surface life events before a client calls.

Acquirers are already deploying the technology among their affiliated advisors. They say it has not yet changed their view of valuations, which Darby attributed to buyers being absorbed in implementing AI inside their own firms.

Some buyers have told him they expect mass-affluent households with up to $2 million in assets to be served better and more cheaply by an AI agent. Advisors focused solely on investment management and stock picking already draw less interest from major buyers, according to the report, and AI would likely sharpen that.

The report does not say whether multiples have moved off the 2025 median. "The human moat today is real, but sometimes moats drain," Darby said. "It certainly has in other industries."