The average deal size also broke a record at $1.4 billion, topping the first-half 2015 average of $1.3 billion and exceeding the average deal size for each full year since the Great Recession.
A record number of the buyers were private equity companies (26% versus 11% in last year's first half). The first-half number also topped the private equity deals of any full year of the past decade, Schwab notes.
The largest number of the deals involved RIAs (35%) or strategic acquiring firms (31%) as the buyers.