RIAs to have a rollicking year
Mergers and acquisition chatter in the registered investment advisor market started off at a substantial volume in 2024 as reports of Fisher Investments potentially seeking a buyer kicked off the new year. Fisher Investments, with $236 billion in client assets, denied the reports.
But the discussion of a mega-RIA like Fisher Investments possibly being up for sale is an indication that 2024 will likely be studded with significant transactions that further transform the RIA marketplace from a collection of boutique, mom-and-pop businesses just 20 years ago into some of the assets that are most coveted by Wall Street’s private equity investors.
As of this writing, the analysts and investment banks haven’t yet released their year-end tallies of RIA deal flow for 2023. After getting off to a slow start last year, RIA deals surged over the summer.
According to investment bank Echelon Partners, in the quarter ended September 30, RIA buyers announced 86 transactions, surpassingthe 65 announced in the second quarter by 32 percent. That was a rebound to levels not seen since early 2022, according to Echelon.
The Fisher Investments’ chatter points to the potential for another period in which deals and deal-makers shine, one veteran industry executive noted.
“We’ll continue to see deals in the RIA space this year – just think about what happened in 2023,” said Larry Roth, managing partner at RLR Strategic Partners. “Focus Financial Partners went private, CI Financial had its name changed to Corient, and other large networks or aggregators may be recapitalizing.”
“And then you have the private equity investors selling percentages of the firms they own to other PE investors to take some money off the table and gain some time to
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