Hosts Chris LeRoy and Alex deMarco break down Dakota Marketplace's first-half 2026 RIA M&A data, finding a market running at a steady, elevated clip: 205 announced US transactions through June 30, representing over $400 billion in acquired client AUM, or roughly 100 deals a quarter. That pace isn't a spike, the hosts argue; it's simply where the market sits now.
Quarter over quarter, deal count barely moved (102 in Q1, 103 in Q2), but AUM swung more, from $236 billion in Q1 down to $164 billion in Q2, a drop the hosts attribute to Q1's outsized Carlyle-MAI Capital deal (73 billion) rather than any real cooling. Strip out the mega-deals and the average deal size has held steady in the $1 to $2 billion range for three straight quarters, with deal count up 24% from Q4 2025's 83. For fundraisers, the takeaway is that roughly 100 deals a quarter is now a durable floor for the channel, not a cyclical high.
On the buyer side, Cerity Partners led all acquirers by AUM despite closing just four deals, adding $22.3 billion via Verus, Austin Private Wealth, Edge Financial Group, and SOL Capital. Hightower, Spire, Corient, and Savant Wealth each added over $10 billion, while Waverly Advisors, CapTrust, Creative Planning, and Beacon Point stayed highly active with three to six deals apiece, just under the $10 billion mark. Among PE-backed platforms overall, CapTrust remains in a class of its own at over $1 trillion in client assets, followed by Creative Planning and Mariner at just over $600 billion each, Focus Financial around $400 billion, and Hightower, Edelman Financial Engines, and Wealthspire rounding out the next tier.
A layer below the mega-platforms, the hosts flag a group of emerging RIA aggregators worth tracking now, before their manager rosters centralize: Prime Capital Financial (50billion,backedbyCarlyle,whichjustreplacedAbriassponsorinAugust),EPWealth(42 billion, Berkshire and Ares, 8+ deals in H1), Waverly Advisors (35.5billion,30+dealssince2021andreportedlyworkingthrougharecap),MeritFinancial(24 billion, doubled AUM in a year via 13 acquisitions), ARAX Advisory Partners (23.2billion,backedbyRedBird),andOnePointBFGWealth(15 billion, a minority stake from Rise Growth Partners). The hosts' advice to managers: build relationships with these platforms now, before their approved lists formalize and decision-making slows.
Deal structure is evolving alongside deal volume. Traditional majority buyouts still account for 60-65% of activity, but minority and non-controlling investments are gaining share as PE sponsors sell stakes to other PE firms to fund growth, and continuation vehicles and PE-to-PE recaps (a secondary buyer stepping in while the founder stays in place) are becoming more common as the market matures.
The episode closes with a rundown of what's actively in motion: THL has retained Goldman Sachs and Ardea Partners to run a sale of a controlling stake in Hightower (~160 billion) is down to two bidders, Carlyle and Bain, in a process that could value the firm near $7 billion including debt. Further down market, Parallel Advisors and Summit Trail are both exploring sale processes, and Goldman CEO David Solomon's public comments about M&A appetite in wealth management are, per the hosts, worth watching closely.
Looking to the second half, the hosts expect deal count to hold near 100 a quarter, with full-year AUM landing between $550 billion and $600 billion depending on whether another mega-deal materializes, either way a record year. The outcome of the Hightower sale, they note, could reset how every other founder-backed platform thinks about its own exit.
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