Record RIA deal volume meets a pickier buyer pool

In 2025 the U.S. wealth management M&A market set a record, and the buyers who set it were simultaneously narrowing their standards. Berkshire Global Advisors counted 349 transactions among RIAs managing more than $100 million in assets, up from 276 in 2024, according to Wealth Solutions Report. The count is the highest on record. What the buyers did with that volume is the more complicated story.

For the better part of a decade, private equity and PE-backed platforms paid premium prices for scale, moving quickly to accumulate assets and let the market do the rest. That era is not over, but it is qualifying its terms. Pradeep Jayaraman, president of Bluespring Wealth Partners, describes the change as a matter of institutionalization: larger platforms are becoming more disciplined and selective, and 'scale alone doesn't command a premium anymore.' The attributes he says buyers now prioritize are sustained organic growth, multigenerational leadership, and strong operational infrastructure.

The rationalization the executives describe is the kind that could, as Wealth Solutions Report notes, serve both sides. For buyers, it lowers the odds of overpaying for a mediocre business. For sellers who clear the higher bar, it means a field of more disciplined buyers and fewer competing offers from firms that would have overpaid. 'While the number of independent buyers is shrinking, capital remains strong,' Jayaraman said. The money has not left. The tolerance for marginal operators has.

Jeff Nash, CEO of Bridgemark Strategies, sees the buyer pool as two tiers rather than a shrinking headcount. The A-tier firms are doing more deals per firm and remaining highly selective, interested mainly in A-quality sellers who clear every bar, he told Wealth Solutions Report. The B-tier is being left behind. The distinction, Nash's account suggests, is not just about price but about whether a deal gets done at all.

Nate Angelo, CEO of Composition Wealth, draws a sharper line. Firms that have not kept up with technology, failed to meet advisor and client demands, or lack a clear vision for clients have been forced out of the market — 'a great thing for advisors,' he said. In what he calls a shrinking universe, smarter buyers can maintain discipline and higher standards. 'Acquiring more assets is no longer the measuring stick of success,' Angelo said. Buyers are looking for well-led, strong-performing firms with the ability to grow organically, and advisor and client demographics sit at the center of the evaluation.

For an owner who built a firm around scale, the message is a repricing. The record years paid for what a firm had already become; the current market pays for what a firm can prove about its future. Organic growth must be a pattern, not a quarter. Leadership must extend beyond the founder. Operations must run without the founder in the room.

The criteria the executives list all point to continuity beyond the founder. That is what makes the shift uncomfortable for sellers who spent years expecting a payout based purely on the size of the book. A firm that cannot document those things is not necessarily being undervalued. It is being priced for the risk it presents to the buyer — the risk of client attrition, integration trouble, or a founder who walks after the earn-out.

Bomy Hagopian, a partner at Berkshire Global Advisors, points to a widening menu for owners who are not ready to sell the whole firm. 'There are some different business models providing nuanced options,' he said. Hagopian cites capital partners and select strategic partners that will take minority stakes, as well as non-M&A affiliation models that preserve various levels of independence. A minority sale can give a founder liquidity while keeping the existing team in place, or it can fund growth and technology ahead of a larger exit. An affiliation model lets a firm stay owner-led while borrowing the operational infrastructure of a larger platform.

These structures have existed for years. Their appeal grows as the whole-firm buyer pool becomes more tiered. An owner who sells a minority stake now can hold the rest and sell later from a stronger negotiating position, rather than accepting a single take-it-or-leave-it price.

The groundwork, however, looks the same. Financial statements need to be audit-ready. Growth needs to be documented. The firm needs to function without the founder at the center. The owners who positioned themselves as A-sellers, in Nash's terms, have likely been preparing well in advance — not in the months before marketing begins.

The record year also masks a concentration of activity. Nash's account of A-buyers doing more deals per firm suggests the largest platforms are pulling ahead of the rest. That concentration, if it continues, will give those buyers even more leverage over terms — and make the preparation work even more decisive.

Berkshire's count gives sellers a clear sense of the market. Liquidity is available. But it is moving toward a narrower set of firms, and the narrowing is the story. The sellers who capture the limited buyer universe will be those whose firms already run like they are owned by someone else. That is not a contradiction. It is the rational market the executives are describing.