ECHELON Partners Reports RIA M&A Holds Steady in the Third Quarter as 2026 Runs 12.2% Ahead of Last Year

125 Transactions Tie for the Second-Highest Quarter on Record; Firm Projects Approximately 510 Total Deals for Full-Year 2026

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- ECHELON Partners today announced the release of its 3Q 2026 RIA M&A Deal Report, showing that wealth management M&A remains on pace for a record year. The ECHELON team tracked 125 transactions announced during the quarter¹, matching 3Q 2025's record for the most active third quarter and tying for the second-highest quarterly total on record behind the 142 announced in 1Q 2026. The 387 transactions announced through September set a nine-month record, 12.2% ahead of the same period in 2025. Total transacted assets reached $389 billion for the quarter.

The findings point to a market with ample capital and an increasingly clear division of roles. A private equity firm was involved, as a direct investor or a buyer's sponsor, in 102 of the quarter's 125 transactions. Sponsors supplied capital to large platforms through minority investments, while strategic acquirers, nearly all of them PE-backed, did the buying. This edition also introduces a CEO Executive Summary from Dan Seivert, CEO and Managing Partner at ECHELON Partners, along with the RIA M&A Activity Continuum, which together place the quarter's announced deals in a longer-term context.

"Announced transaction volume is not the same as current M&A activity," said Seivert. "Announcements are a lagging indicator, and much of what will shape the quarters ahead is already underway. In our own practice, seller inquiries, new engagements, and buyer participation in marketed processes remain strong."

Key Trends Shaping Third Quarter 2026 Activity

Buyers Are Paying for Niches, Not Just Assets

Acquirers increasingly targeted firms serving specific client segments or offering service capabilities they can scale, including The Vistria Group's investment in Curi Capital, which serves medical professionals, and Corient's acquisition of Music Row Wealth Management, which serves country music artists. Capability-driven deals clustered around tax and institutional consulting.

PE-Backed Buyers Still Dominate, but Their Share Slipped

PE-backed acquirers announced 92 of the quarter's 125 transactions, or 73.6%, down from the all-time high of 75.8% set in 2Q 2026, even as deals involving a PE firm as a direct investor or sponsor rose to 102 from 99. RIAs announced a record 81.6% of transactions, and one-time buyers announced 15 deals, up from a record low of five in the second quarter.

Sponsor Capital Events Anchor the Largest Deals

The quarter's three largest transactions were minority capital events rather than sales: Merchant Investment Management's 25.9% stake in the $66.6 billion Ironbark Financial Group, Hamilton Lane's $270 million continuation vehicle for the $57 billion Savant and Carlyle's $600 million investment in the $50 billion Prime Capital. Strategic acquirers announced 26 of the quarter's 37 transactions of $1 billion or more, all but one of them outright acquisitions, led by Wealth Enhancement Group's acquisition of the $22.5 billion RWA Wealth Partners and Corient's $21 billion acquisition of Summit Trail Advisors.

Fewer Large Deals for Serial Acquirers, Not a Sustained Shift to Smaller Ones

The 10 buyers with three or more deals announced 47 transactions, including 12 of $1 billion or more, down from 15 in 2Q 2026, and their median deal fell to roughly $573 million from $810 million. Five of the 12 came from Hightower, four of them conversions of affiliated practices into its Signature Wealth channel, a sign that the largest serial acquirers are continuing their shift from aggregation to integration. The 2026 year-to-date average of $1.9 billion per transaction² remains above the 2021 to 2025 annual average of $1.7 billion.

WealthTECH Hits a Record as Platforms Converge

WealthTECH deal flow reached a record 51 transactions in 3Q 2026, up 27.5% from 40 in 3Q 2025. Vanguard's acquisition of Altruist put custody at the center of the quarter, and the largest deals by assets were the Ascensus recapitalization ($1.3 trillion in AUA) and the acquisition of Russell Investments ($416 billion in AUM).

A Fuller View of RIA M&A

The report's new CEO Executive Summary draws on ECHELON's 25 years advising wealth managers to explain how the market has evolved and what it signals for the year ahead. It is paired with the RIA M&A Activity Continuum, a new framework for understanding the deal activity that takes place well before a transaction is announced, largely out of public view. The report also details what ECHELON's core count includes and how adjacent areas, from technology to retirement platforms, are reshaping the industry.

Outlook for 2026: Another Record in Sight

Looking ahead, ECHELON Partners estimates 2026 deal volume will reach approximately 510 transactions, up from its July projection of 500, which would surpass the 2025 record of 466. The structural drivers of consolidation remain intact. In ECHELON's view, the limiting factor is the seller: the firm estimates that only about 2.9% of roughly 17,000 registered advisers transact in a given year, while a healthy market could support closer to 5%.

"Our goal is to move beyond counting transactions to explaining and anticipating them," added Seivert. "By our count, 2026 is on track to be the most active year in the industry's history."

The 3Q 2026 RIA M&A Deal Report provides a detailed analysis of transaction activity and the strategic forces shaping the next phase of industry consolidation.

The full report is available for download at https://www.echelon-partners.com/research-and-insights/.

About ECHELON Partners

ECHELON Partners is an investment bank and consulting firm focused exclusively on the wealth and investment management industries. Founded in 2001 by Dan Seivert, the firm celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2026. ECHELON provides M&A advisory, capital raising, valuation, and strategic consulting services to RIAs, broker-dealers, and other financial services firms. Since 2015, ECHELON has published its award-winning RIA M&A Deal Reports, which track transaction activity and consolidation trends each quarter and are regularly cited by leading wealth management and financial publications.

¹ Totals reflect ECHELON's core U.S. wealth management transaction count. WealthTECH and other Beyond the Core transactions are tracked separately.

² Excludes transactions involving over $20 billion in AUM.

SOURCE Echelon Partners