DeVoe: RIA deal count falls 17% in Q3; $5B-plus sellers set record

RIA merger announcements fell 17% in the third quarter of 2026, to 77 deals from 93 a year earlier, according to DeVoe & Company's Q3 2026 RIA M&A Deal Book. The drop ends a seven-quarter run of record-setting volume. The year-to-date count, 244 transactions, is still slightly ahead of last year's record pace.

Sellers with more than $5 billion in assets accounted for 41 of the 244 year-to-date transactions, already more than in any prior full year, and represented a record 17% of the market, DeVoe's report says. Firms with $100 million to $500 million in assets accounted for 87 transactions; their 36% share puts the segment on track for its lowest full-year share on record. Sellers above $500 million now account for 64% of transactions.

Announced transactions are a lagging read on owner sentiment, which is why this quarter's 77 deals describe last year's hesitation as much as this year's appetite. A banker-led RIA sale typically takes about six months from decision to announcement, while do-it-yourself deals often take 12 to 18 months; DeVoe uses that gap to argue the third-quarter dip reflects decisions made earlier, not a buyer retreat. The window covers three spikes in the Cboe Volatility Index: after tariff announcements in April 2025, on worries about AI valuations in November 2025, and when the U.S.-Iran conflict broke out in March of this year.

"The volatility and distraction created by tariffs, the war with Iran, gasoline price surges and other economic shocks caused some advisors to pause before moving forward with a sale," said David DeVoe, founder and CEO of DeVoe & Company. "That hesitation is now emerging in our transaction data."

The same lag cuts the other way. DeVoe says it expects to close more than 15 client transactions over the next six months. Third-quarter volume also edged up from 74 deals in the second quarter, a softer decline than preliminary DeVoe data released in late September had suggested.

Consolidators, serial acquirers built around M&A, announced 129 deals, or 53% of the market, up from 45% in 2024 and 49% in 2025. RIAs acting as buyers took 29%. Other buyers, including private equity firms, broker-dealers and banks, fell to 18%, their smallest share since 2014. Wealth Enhancement leads the acquirer table with 16 transactions, followed by Hightower Signature Wealth with 15; twelve of Hightower's deals involved firms already in its network.

Average seller assets, which exclude mega deals, reached $1.02 billion, while the median seller managed $625 million. Fewer transactions and record asset volumes have been the pattern all year.