In 2025, 511 new RIAs launched. At the same time, 377 M&A transactions closed representing $2.5 trillion in acquired assets. Both things happened in the same year, at the same time.
That tension tells you everything about where the RIA market is right now.
We covered all of it on Episode 25 of the Dakota Insights Podcast, and in this article we’ll go over everything you need to know.
The Market Looks Fragmented. It Isn't.
Dakota tracks 6,421 independent RIAs managing $14.3 trillion in assets. That sounds wide open. It's not.
The top 10% of firms control 80% of total assets. Firms over $1 billion in AUM represent just 22% of the market by count, but manage 88% of the capital. The nearly 4,500 firms under $700 million together account for less than 9% of total AUM.
The long tail exists. But the capital doesn't live there.
For fund managers building a distribution strategy in this channel, that math matters. Growth depends on getting in front of the $1B+ platforms, not blanket coverage of every firm in the market.
Top Trends Defining the RIA Market in 2026
1. Investment Decisions Are Moving Away From Individual Advisors
This is the biggest shift, and the one most distribution teams are still underestimating.
RIAs at scale are no longer collections of independent advisors making their own calls. Investment authority is consolidating into CIO offices, investment committees, and model-driven frameworks. Access to capital is becoming more centralized, more structured, and more selective as a result.
Several factors drove this: continued asset concentration among large platforms, private equity sponsors acquiring RIAs specifically to control distribution and decision-making, and the complexity that comes from integrating alternatives into core portfolios.
The practical implication: you're not just building advisor relationships anymore. You're trying to get approved by a system with defined decision-makers and a formal review process.
2. M&A Is About Controlling Allocation, Not Just Growing Assets
The narrative around RIA M&A has always been succession planning and scale. That's still part of it. But the strategic objective has shifted.
The ten most active acquirers in 2025 completed over 100 transactions representing more than $880 billion in assets. The prominent consolidators include Merit Financial, Mercer Global Advisors, Carson Group, Wealth Enhancement, Creative Planning, Mariner Wealth Advisors, and Corient. Most are backed by private equity sponsors.
What they're actually acquiring: investment governance and distribution control. Cresset's acquisition of Monticello is a good example. The deal wasn't structured to add AUM. It was designed to embed institutional-grade private market diligence and portfolio construction capabilities directly into the platform.
That's the new template. Capability acquisition is becoming as important as asset acquisition.
3. Alternatives Have Moved From Optional to Core
Approximately 80% of advisors now allocate alternatives for accredited investors. Private credit, private equity, and real assets are the most common… used to enhance income, manage drawdowns, and diversify away from public equity risk.
Once alternatives become core holdings, everything around them has to mature. Firms need formalized manager selection, ongoing monitoring, liquidity design, and suitability oversight. You can't run a private markets book on ad hoc advisor decisions.
That operational complexity is a forcing function for institutionalization. Firms without centralized governance and infrastructure face rising risk as portfolios get more complex.
For alternatives managers specifically: access is no longer primarily about finding interested advisors. It's about identifying platforms with the infrastructure to actually allocate, manage, and communicate around alternatives positions at scale.
See the RIA data behind this post →
4. Model Portfolios are the Primary Distribution Gateway
Getting into a model matters more than winning individual advisors. That's a big shift.
As RIAs scale, models become the primary way investment decisions get expressed and implemented across a growing advisor base. They simplify compliance, speed up post-M&A integration, and deliver consistency across the organization. As a result, more and more client assets flow through centralized models rather than advisor-level discretion.
For asset managers, the distribution implication is direct: model placement is increasingly the gateway to scale on large RIA platforms. You're either in the model or you're not.
Knowing which platforms are model-driven, who manages those models, and how to get in front of the investment committee… that's where the edge is.
5. New Firm Formation is Still Strong, but the Entry-Level Market Is a Different Game
511 new RIAs launched in 2025 with $80.6 billion in initial AUM. That's more than double the prior year. Advisors still want ownership, control, and enterprise value. That's not going away.
But these new firms sit in the long tail. They're typically advisor-driven, founder-led, with limited alternatives exposure and no formal investment committee. They're a different audience entirely from the platforms controlling the majority of capital.
The market remains entrepreneurial at the entry level. It's institutional at scale. Your strategy needs to account for which part of that you're actually trying to access.
6. Distribution Success Now Depends on Platform Alignment, Not Relationship Volume
For years, the winning strategy in the RIA channel was relationship-driven: build trust with advisors, one at a time. That still matters. But it's no longer sufficient on its own.
As investment authority consolidates into CIO offices and committee frameworks, products are evaluated on how they fit within existing portfolio construction, governance standards, and model architecture. Asset managers are assessed on their ability to support repeatable implementation, provide transparency and reporting, and integrate operationally with platform workflows.
The firms winning in this environment know how each platform is actually structured. They know who controls allocation, how approval decisions move, and what it takes to get onto a model. That's the intelligence that drives distribution at scale.
What to Expect in 2026
Consolidation will continue concentrating investment authority within large platforms. Model portfolios will become the default implementation framework across more of the channel. Alternatives will keep expanding within those models.
Standards for transparency, reporting, and operational integration will rise as centralized evaluation becomes the norm. Managers that fit within RIA platforms and model structures are positioned to grow. Those that can't meet institutional requirements will find access increasingly constrained.
Access the RIA Market With Precision
Dakota Marketplace tracks 17,000+ RIAs, including 6,800+ wealth manager RIAs, with verified contacts for decision-makers including CIOs, investment committee members, and alternatives allocators. You can filter by AUM tier, geography, alternatives usage, and model portfolio adoption to build a targeted prospect list for this channel.
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