Adviser Movement Increased Ahead of Record M&A Quarter

Financial advisers continued to show high levels of mobility last year, as mergers and acquisitions involving registered investment advisers and wealth management firms continued to increase.

In 2025, 39,171 advisers changed firms, according to data from ISS MI MarketPro, powered by Discovery, which, like PLANADVISER, is part of ISS Market Intelligence. The “U.S. Rep Movement Report 2025” found that last year’s total marked the third consecutive year of increasing movement, just shy of the past decade’s peak of 39,889 advisers switching firms in 2022 and almost 4,000 higher than in 2024.

Retail RIAs and independent broker/dealers had the largest net gains in advisers of any channel: From 2021 through 2025, retail RIAs gained 9,525 advisers, while independent broker/dealers gained 5,780 advisers. In the same time period, wirehouse firms had a net loss of 8,017 advisers, and insurance-affiliated firms lost 7,934.

Institutional firms had 22,431 advisers move within the channel during those five years but only saw a net gain of 712 advisers. Retail RIAs and independent broker/dealers each had more than 16,000 advisers change firms within their respective channels in the same period.

LPL Financial LLC, the independent firm which acquired Commonwealth Financial Network last year, was the individual firm with the biggest net gain—7,234 advisers—from 2021 through 2025.

Traditional firm Raymond James & Associates Inc. had the second-largest net gain of 1,120 advisers, and independent firm Cambridge Investment Research Inc. came in third, gaining 745 advisers.

According to ISS MI, the total number of licensed advisers declined to 799,200 in 2025, following increases in the previous four years. Advisers with more than 31 years of industry experience accounted for 14% of the workforce in 2025, up from 5% in 2010, reflecting the continued aging of the advisory industry.

RIA, Wealth Advisory M&A Set New Records in Q1

The large amount of adviser movement was matched by a record number of mergers and acquisitions among advisory firms in the first quarter of 2026.

According to consulting firm Echelon Partners, 142 M&A transactions involving RIAs closed in Q1, totaling $1.67 trillion in assets and beating the previous quarterly record of 125. Similarly, consulting firm MarshBerry counted 94 wealth advisory M&A deals in the first quarter, a 6.8% year-over-year increase.

Echelon predicted 2026 will include 475 M&A deals, up from 466 in 2025, and MarshBerry predicted more than 400 wealth advisory deals will close in 2026, up from 374 last year.

In Q1, many M&A trends carried over from last year, such as the predominance of private-equity-backed transactions. PE was involved in 102 RIA transactions—71.8% of the first-quarter deals—including seven direct investments.

More than three-quarters (76%) of wealth advisory deals were backed by private capital, a portion that has steadily increased from 74% in 2025, 72% in 2024 and 52% in 2020.

Size also mattered, as 53 RIA M&A deals with at least $1 billion in assets closed in the first quarter, and Echelon estimated that 2026 could have 190 deals worth at least $1 billion, up from last year’s record of 185.

The three most active buyers in wealth advisory M&A—HighTower Advisors, Savant Wealth Management and EP Wealth Advisors—accounted for 16% of first-quarter transactions, and the 10 most active buyers represented 40.4% of wealth market activity.

The first quarter’s largest wealth advisory deal was Corebridge Financial Inc.’s merger with Equitable Holdings Inc., which was announced on March 26 and formed a $22 billion company with $1.5 trillion in assets under management and administration. Among the quarter’s largest RIA deals was the Carlyle Group Inc. agreeing on March 31 to acquire a majority stake in registered investment adviser MAI Capital Management LLC at a valuation of more than $2.8 billion.

Two first-quarter wealth advisory deals involved retirement planning firms, according to MarshBerry—involving one insurance brokerage buyer and one wealth advisory buyer. There were 29 retirement M&A transactions in 2025, and MarshBerry Wealth Advisory Director John Orsini told PLANADVISER that retirement planning deals could increase later this year. MarshBerry has seen continued demand for wealth and retirement planning firms from brokers.

In 2025, 22 retirement M&A deals had wealth advisory buyers, up from 16 in 2024, marking the fourth year of increases since 2022.

Echelon also noted a separate increase in wealth technology firms’ M&A, totaling 49 deals in Q1 2026, up from 35 in Q1 2025. This reflects companies’ increasing interest in artificial-intelligence-powered workflow tools, client analytics and compliance automation, according to Echelon.