September RIA deals: median acquired firm held $489.5M in assets

The median RIA among 24 acquired in September held $489.5 million in assets, according to Wealth Solutions Report. Half came in below $500 million, and the largest, Evoke Advisors, was purchased by MAI Capital Management with $17.29 billion in AUM.

Two transactions accounted for 68.3% of September's $38.16 billion in acquired-firm AUM. Evoke alone accounted for 45.3%. For an owner sizing up a sale, the gap between the median and the total matters: a $17.29 billion target is not a comparable for a $500 million practice. MAI, Evoke's buyer, is the platform this publication has reported is backed by Carlyle.

Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services made three acquisitions in the September data, and Allworth Financial made two. Together they accounted for 20.8% of acquired firms but 9.4% of acquired assets, so the repeat consolidators were adding seller count faster than they were adding assets.

September's acquisitions spanned family-office firms, tax-focused advisory businesses, traditional wealth managers and investment-focused practices. Allworth's Sachetta deal was explicitly tax-focused, and Central Family Advisors joined Prime Quadrant to expand a multi-family-office presence.

On geography, the report describes large consolidators building national footprints by combining smaller local firms, selective billion-dollar-plus acquisitions and advisor-transition arrangements. It characterizes September's buyer set as focused on established regional firms. The reported figures are acquired-firm AUM rather than purchase prices, so the data benchmarks where a firm sits in the size distribution, not what multiple it might fetch. Private Advisor Group CFO Adam Schorr, speaking to Wealth Solutions Report, said transferability can be improved in the final year while founder dependency takes years to unwind.

As this publication reported in August, Fidelity's first-half data showed a two-tier sale market: fewer transactions, record asset volumes and a narrowing queue for smaller practices. September's 24 deals and $489.5 million median are one month of evidence for that split.