The rapid pace of RIA mergers and acquisitions that has emerged in the last two years has become the new normal for M&A activity, according to a report issued Monday by Nuveen/DeVoe.

In particular, acquisitions of large firms, those between $1 billion in assets under management and $5 billion, are popular for a wide range of buyers, the report says. DeVoe and Company provides business strategy and M&A consulting services to the wealth management and investment management community. Nuveen is an investment management firm specializing in helping financial advisors with affluent and high-net-worth investors.

The financial industry saw 37 transactions in the most recent quarter compared with 38 last quarter.

“Q3 2016 is the eighth successive quarter of 30 or more transactions,” says David DeVoe, managing partner at DeVoe & Company. “What started as a potential spike in RIA sales, then sustained itself into a perceived surge, and has now evolved into an apparent ‘new normal’ of heightened M&A activity.”

“Most industry observers are realizing that it isn’t just the demographics of principals that will likely drive a continued increase in sellers, but also the growing value of scale. RIAs are demonstrating a heightened interest in outsourcing their compliance, technology and operational functions, and an increased openness to selling or merging to achieve a best-in-class solution,” the report says.

A total of 109 transactions were tracked through the first three quarters of this year compared with 100 deals executed during the same period in 2015. Last year was the high-water mark for RIA acquisition activity in a single year, with a total of 132 deals executed during the 12-month period and 2016 is on pace to exceed that number, the research shows.

Large firms are especially attractive to buyers. During the first three quarters of 2016, a total of 24 large sellers executed transactions, compared to 17 in 2015 and only nine in 2014. This increase in large sellers also contributed to the increase in the average size for sellers to more than $1 billion.

“These highly-prized firms are sought after by the widest breadth of acquirers, including consolidators, banks, RIAs and private equity firms,” says Tim Forest, a DeVoe & Company managing director. “The sellers generally are large enough to attract the attention of the deepest-pocketed acquirers, but are still within reach of buyers who can’t afford $5 billion-plus AUM acquisitions.”

A Schwab report on M&A activity revealed similar heightened activity.