The number of RIA mergers and acquisitions is down for the first 11 months of this year, but the assets in movement are up, with larger deals being sealed than were accomplished last year, according to Fidelity Investments.
By the end of November, the AUM involved in RIA deals was up 10 percent from the same period last year, while the total number of deals was down 15 percent to 104. Last month alone, there were nine RIA mergers or acquisitions representing $16.6 billion, including three multi-billion-dollar AUM transactions, Fidelity said.
One of the larger RIA deals came about when Citizens Bank bought Clarfeld Financial Advisors to create a $7.5 billion RIA. Focus Financial Partners/the Buckingham Family of Financial Services also had a productive year with the acquisition of Loring Ward Holdings in September to create a $17.2 billion RIA. At least 24 other multi-billion-dollar RIAs were created through mergers and acquisitions through the end of November.
In the independent broker-dealer space, deals were far ahead of the 2017 activity, with $451 billion in assets under administration moving through seven transactions in the first 11 months. This is more than two and a half times the assets under administration that moved in 2017, which had five independent broker-dealer transactions representing $165.9 billion by the end of 2017.
In November alone this year, there was one broker-dealer transaction representing $50 billion. In that transaction, Hilliard Lyons merged with Baird. One of the largest transactions occurred in July when Genstar Capital Management, now with $224 billion in assets, bought a major share of Cetera Financial Group.