PE Ownership Expands Into Midsize, Small RIAs

Private equity firms are dominant players in mergers and acquisitions of registered investment advisers: A recent report by intelligence platform AdvizorPro found that PE-owned RIA assets under management totaled $5.97 trillion in July, realizing a 14% year-over-year increase.

As of July, PE companies owned 3.7% of RIA firms with at least $100 million in assets under advisement, and those advisories hold about 23% of industry assets.

The number of PE-backed RIAs grew by 16% over the last year, to 295 in July 2025 from 255 in July 2024, but over the same period, their median AUM fell to $2.31 billion from $2.45 billion.

According to AdvizorPro, the 5.6% decrease in median AUM reflects PE increasingly acquiring midsize and small advisers. Of RIAs with less than $1 billion in assets under management, PE owned 81 firms in July, up from 62 a year earlier.

“While the trade industry headlines have been focusing on multi-billion-dollar platforms … our data show that there is an accelerating wave of investment into smaller firms,” said Michael Magnan, AdvizorPro’s founder and CEO, in a statement. “It seems that private equity firms are seeking more scalable regional firms that can then be rolled up into larger growth strategies over time.”

PE-backed RIAs had faster growth than their non-PE-owned counterparts, according to AdvizorPro. Comparing average one-year compound annual growth rates, PE-owned RIAs grew by 40.6%, as compared with 34% for non-PE-owned. The gap broadened for three-year CAGR, with PE-owned firms growing 30.7%, and non-PE-owned firms growing 13.9%.

AdvizorPro—registered as PlanPro Solutions LLC—analyzed SEC Form ADV Part 1 filings for more than 7,800 SEC-registered RIAs through mid-2025 and looked at RIAs reporting PE ownership as of July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025.