Fidelity tells sub-$100 million RIAs to grow or move by June 2027
The notices went to affected firms, and the threshold counts assets held at Fidelity rather than total firm AUM.
October 2
The Exit Desk 2 stories this week · 41 total
Timewise Financial's Caroline Piehl describes succeeding her father as managing partner
On the Talent Stack podcast, Piehl says she retained the firm's integrated tax and wealth planning model while changing technology and investment strategy gradually.
The RIA deal dip is a seller's calendar problem
The 239 deals through September 22 put the year two ahead of last year's record pace and the quarter 19% behind it, a split that should shape a succession timeline.
The Multiple
In RIA sales, the entity chart beats the multiple
The July 2025 tax law made the real number in a practice sale depend on a structure the owner chose years before any buyer called.
A soft RIA deal quarter tells sellers about 2025, not 2027
DeVoe's 19% dip counts decisions made a year ago, which makes it a reading on timing rather than a reading on value.
Dynasty broadens the RIA capital menu; the successor still goes unnamed
The capital menu answers how a founder gets paid; naming the successor is a different transaction, and the money does not touch it.
The successor is a buyer, and the terms are missing
Edward Jones and Morning Consult found that 86% of junior advisors want to inherit a retiring founder's practice, while only 38% of senior advisors anticipating a transition within five years have named a successor—a gap that reads as a documentation failure and prices like an offer left unwritten.
Buyers still pay up. They want the file first
Deal counts fell 9% while seller assets climbed 88%, and the gap between those two numbers is where a founder's pitch and the premium get decided.
Aggregator equity turns a sale into a bet on someone else's roll-up
Equity now makes up 25% to 40% of a typical advisor exit, sometimes 75%, and the headline multiple means little if the second liquidity event never arrives.
Three exits, three prices, one book
The same client list got three prices this week: a $1.3 billion custody move at 25 basis points, a wirehouse grid paying above its own top rate, and a House-passed ESOP standard.
ESOP bill clears the House; exit advice gets a rulebook
The Retire Through Ownership Act gives advisers a named valuation standard for the ESOP route, changing how a founder's options stack up against a buyer's letter of intent.
The RIA sale price hides in the owner's salary line
A buyer recast a seller's $1.5 million profit to $1.2 million in week six, and the missing $300,000 was the founder's own pay — the one add-back she never priced.
Sanchez's real multiple sits in the terms nobody published
Modern Wealth bought a $710 million book and a founder's remaining career in one signature, which makes the price that matters the one the announcement left out.
A $710 million exit where the founder stays put
Sanchez Wealth Management's sale to Modern Wealth prices both a practice and a career; the terms nobody published are the ones a selling principal should be negotiating.
The 3X lure that keeps founders from exiting
Michael Kitces and Carl Richards explain how the next client meant to build enterprise value becomes the reason the founder never leaves.
Savant's Socha deal maps a hybrid exit
A family-founded New York RIA sold to Savant with the next generation keeping equity, creating a structure for owners caught between internal succession and an outside sale.
Scale commands record prices as RIA deal count falls
Fidelity's first-half report shows a two-tier sale market—fewer transactions, record asset volumes, and a narrowing queue for smaller practices.
Fidelity's M&A report is a seller's checklist
Buyers are doing fewer, bigger deals and screening for culture, client experience and expanded services — which makes Fidelity's mid-year M&A report a seller's checklist.
The 11.6x RIA multiple is a retention premium
Advisor Growth Strategies' record 11.6x median rewards the owners who gave next-gen equity away before they hired a banker.
Calculator wave prices every advisor's exit
Free valuation tools from recruiters and aggregators are resetting the negotiation floor for advisors planning a move.
Vistria's Curi deal keeps employees on the cap table
The rollover tells advisor-sellers to price retention risk, not just the headline multiple.
The 71% succession gap in executive benefits
NFP finds 81% of employers cannot afford to lose top talent, but 71% do not design benefits around succession.
The sunset deal’s last excuse is being automated away
As custodians smooth account transfers, the higher price of an independent sale loses its biggest obstacle—and the easy exit becomes the expensive one.
Sticker multiples shrink as retention and earnout clauses bite
Sellers who accept headline revenue multiples without discounting post-closing contingencies are pricing the buyer's risk, not their own cash flow.
A free exit score is resettling RIA prices
FP Transitions' 1-to-100 tool weights profit over AUM, and Stratos's name-preserving deal shows buyers are already paying for cash flow.
FP Transitions' free tool puts a number on an RIA's exit math
A free 1-to-100 score from FP Transitions gives RIA owners a rough read on sale value — and a reminder that buyers now pay for profit potential, not AUM size.
SEI-backed Stratos acquires $400 million Illinois planning firm
A multi-year search brings RPI into SEI-backed Stratos with its name intact.
A $644M solo practice finds an exit in a $160B aggregator
The sale of Weinand Financial, a one-advisor firm, shows a working exit for sub-$1B practices.
Carlyle's $2.8 billion MAI bet re-prices the RIA exit
The deal prices MAI's AUM at about 5.5 cents per dollar and signals what scaled owners can expect at the sale table.
RIA deal report maps what buyers reject
Advisor Growth Strategies' 2026 Deal Room report benchmarks the deal killers and the premium drivers.
RIA M&A's record streak runs through DeVoe's newest Deal Book
The report's title claims a record first half, but the numbers stay locked behind a download form.
AGS: the four attributes that decide 9x vs 15x RIA pricing
The record 11.6x median RIA multiple hides a six-turn spread; AGS says positioning, not size, decides which end a seller gets.
The premium in RIA deals now goes to fit, not growth
Advisor Growth Strategies' 11.6x median multiple is real; the market underneath it is pickier than the headline suggests.
The deal that sets your RIA price is never signed
The equity that owners give away early decides the premium they collect at exit, AGS argues.
Succession nears a breaking point, DeVoe survey finds
Only 22% of RIA leaders say their successors can afford a buyout, and the gap is growing.
A seller's emotions can make or break an RIA deal
DeVoe & Company and Allworth Financial examine the emotional barriers to selling, using Marshall Financial Group's sale to Creative Planning as a case study.
Edelman hires dealmaker to buy and recruit retirement practices
Edelman's new retirement-plan chief can buy your firm, hire your team, or grow around you — a trio of options for practice owners.
MAI's $1B double buy lands two RIAs on a Carlyle-backed platform
The acquisition puts two planning-heavy RIAs under a Carlyle-backed umbrella, changing the ownership math for their advisors.
Cerulli: One in Four Retiring Advisors Face Succession Uncertainty
With a third of advisors set to retire in the next decade, succession-ready talent will decide who sells on their own terms.
Two failed successions later, Kahler Financial sold to an accounting firm
Rick Kahler watched two hand-picked successors walk away before selling his RIA to a local accounting firm. A case study in making failure survivable.