Wealth management M&A didn’t just set another record in 2025. It shifted further upmarket, pulled more RIAs into the buyer column, and drew in a wider cast of bidders, according to Echelon Partners’ latest RIA M&A Deal Report.
The report released this week counted 466 announced wealth management transactions in 2025, with deal volume up 27.3% from the prior year and nearly double the average annual growth rate of the past five years.
By Echelon's tally, transactions involving firms with at least $1 billion in assets jumped to a record 185 deals in 2025. That marked a 32.1% increase from 140 in 2024, as well as the third straight year of acceleration to account for roughly two-fifths of total volume today.
Echelon sees several forces driving the surge. First, competition for scaled RIAs with proven organic growth, seasoned leadership and integration capability remained intense, with acquirers such as Corient, Focus Financial, Creative Planning, and Merchant Investment Management among the most active.
Second, while minority investments in $1 billion‑plus firms dropped to 16.2% of deals in that range – a 42.3% decline from 2024 – they stayed important for very large managers, particularly those over $10 billion in assets.
Beyond those, PE–backed strategic acquirers continued to set the pace, completing 105 of the 185 $1 billion‑plus transactions, or 56.8% of that segment.
On the buyer side, RIAs tightened their grip on the market, with their share of acquisitions edging up to 73.6% in 2025 compared to 71.6% the prior year. In absolute terms, RIA buyers completed 343 deals, a 30.9% increase, representing about $1.3 trillion in transacted assets, though that was skewed somewhat by four transactions which saw more than $100 billion apiece change hands.
Broker-dealer and hybrid buyers accounted for 4.3% of deals, while private equity firms were direct acquirers in 9.4% of transactions, tied for their lowest share in six years. Even so, when direct investments are combined with sponsor‑backed platforms, financial sponsors were involved in 353 deals, or 75.8% of 2025’s total activity.
The broader buyer universe expanded meaningfully last year: Echelon tracked 194 distinct firms that announced at least one merger or acquisition, up from 165 in 2024 and 153 in 2023. That broader field, layered on top of heavy sponsor backing, is pushing up competition for attractive independent targets and helping support valuations.
“Based on 4Q25’s robust activity and the optimism ECHELON has seen from buyers and sellers in early 2026, we expect the upcoming year to rival or possibly surpass 2025’s deal volume,” the report says, noting that well‑capitalized platforms still have “dry powder” to deploy and are prioritizing strategic acquisitions that align with long‑term growth plans.
If anything was going to slow that momentum, it might have been politics and policy. But the “ongoing political and regulatory uncertainty” and “continued tax policy ambiguity” coming into 2025 did not deter prospective sellers, who Echelon said largely took a long‑term view to focus on succession and liquidity rather than near‑term macro noise.
With equity markets supportive, valuations still robust, and larger platforms adding in‑house tax, estate, and family office capabilities, many owners viewed a sale or partnership as a way to deepen client service while creating more defined career and wealth‑creation paths for next‑generation advisors. Echelon expects those drivers to carry forward this year, particularly for firms with strong client retention, scalable operations, and a clear fit with strategic buyers.
One area that did cool slightly was minority transactions, which represented 8.8% of total activity. Firms announced 41 minority deals in 2025 – down 21.2% from its peak of 52 in 2024. Yet the strategy remains concentrated at the upper end of the market: by Echelon's reckoning, the average seller in a minority transaction had just under $25 billion in assets, and the 10 largest minority deals alone totaled $862 billion.
Echelon sees several reasons behind the continued demand in minority structures, including owners using private capital to fund the next growth phase while keeping control, and founders taking some chips off the table at current valuations.
"In multi-partner firms, bringing in an external investor to buy out retiring or silent partners can increase valuation," the report added. "This process can offer better upfront deal terms and minimize the financial burden on existing partners."
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