The 11.6x RIA multiple is a retention premium

Record RIA valuation multiples are concealing a more selective market, and Advisor Growth Strategies has put a number on the selectivity: the median RIA valuation reached 11.6x EBITDA while comparable firms still land at 9x. In an analysis for the June 2026 Journal of Financial Planning, AGS partner Brandon Kawal argues that, even after a strong 2025 seller's market, the biggest driver of a premium acquisition outcome is an owner's early commitment to give next-gen talent equity; growth, in his telling, is merely the entry ticket. That conclusion cuts against the instinct of owners who spend exit-preparation season polishing growth projections.

On a $10 million EBITDA business, the 2.6-turn spread between the 11.6x median and the 9x comparable works out to $26 million in enterprise value, and AGS says buyers reward four attributes, with equity for the next generation as the biggest driver. That move resolves the buyer's biggest post-close risk: the founder walks, and so do the relationships. An equity plan that predates the sale tells a buyer the business is less a founder annuity than an operating firm where the next generation has a reason to stay, which is why giving equity away early is the cheaper of the two transactions; owners who wait until a buyer is in the room pay for successor retention in the price they accept.

Sellers who ignore that risk are pricing an earnout they will not hit. The record 11.6x multiple is likely pulling some owners to market who have not done the work, tempting them to read the headline as a floor, while buyers are paying up for certainty, and the surest source of certainty is a group of owners already in place.

As this publication has argued, the deal that sets an RIA price is never signed in the sale room; it is signed years earlier, in an equity plan that keeps successors in place. The premium in RIA deals now goes to fit, not growth, and fit begins with who owns the firm after the founder leaves. The Threadline Wealth transition is a useful footnote: AGS served as financial advisor to Threadline in its move from Moss Adams Wealth Advisors to an independent RIA, though the write-up does not say whether AGS views that transaction as an example of its own argument; the connection is our inference, but the pattern is consistent.

For owners planning an exit, the work is the equity grant that closes the 2.6 turns between the median and the 9x comparable, finished before a buyer walks in.