RIA sellers were looking at a longshot if they were hoping to fetch 20 times their EBITDA. Six months from now, landing the highest price is likely to be even harder, according to new data.
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Consulting and valuation firm DeVoe & Co.’s second-quarter “RIA M&A Deal Book,” released this week, found that zero of the big industry consolidators it polled in its recent surveys predicted sales prices in RIA deals would rise in the next six months. That marked a perhaps small but still pointed turnaround from last year’s poll, in which 8% of the respondents said they saw increases on the horizon.
Meanwhile, 18% of the respondents this year predicted sales prices would drop in the next six months, up from only 7% in 2025. The data was compiled from surveys completed by executives at 11 large consolidator firms in May.
DeVoe noted that many RIA owners have been dazzled in recent years by reports of firms being sold for as much as 20 times their EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). In reality, such deals have always been rare.
Consolidators — which DeVoe defines as serial acquirers whose mission is largely to buy up other firms — are now suggesting such outsize prices will become even less common.
“In reality, the transactions that command multiples north of 20x typically involve firms managing tens — or even hundreds — of billions in assets, with exceptional growth, profitability, leadership teams, and strategic attributes that most sellers simply do not possess,” DeVoe wrote in its report.
READ MORE: Firms that can and can’t fetch 20-times EBITDA with private equity
Consolidators in the survey showed signs of cutting back on acquisition plans. Ten percent said they planned to make fewer consolidations in the next six months — an answer none of the respondents had given in the same poll a year ago.
Valuation experts have long flirted with the notion that there could be a correction in store for RIA sales prices. But in DeVoe’s latest Deal Book report, it’s the consolidators that have helped drive valuations skyward that are questioning whether the upward march can continue indefinitely.
“Buyers are not signaling an imminent correction, but they do appear to believe the market has reached its ceiling,” DeVoe noted.
Haig Ariyan, the founder and CEO of the hybrid wealth manager Arax Investment Partners, agreed that the industry is approaching a valuation ceiling. More expensive credit is likely helping to limit how high deal prices can rise.
But industry consolidation itself has made it harder for firms to amass the capital needed to do large deals, he said.
“I would also say that as firms have gotten larger, the required capital to be acquired has become a bit scarcer, and therefore the willingness to pay a multiple without real clarity on the next capital raise or potential exit is also driving some limitations to the current multiples,” Ariyan said.
Ariyan does not see Arax Investment Partners as an RIA consolidator. Much of the firm’s growth comes not from M&A deals but rather “organic sources,” such as its advisors’ work to secure assets from new or existing clients. That said, Arax will not hesitate to buy a firm that has a strong history of organic growth and can bring expertise to augment rather than duplicate Arax’s own service offerings.
Ariyan said he thinks most firms view prospective purchases the same way.
“So, for example, family office services, retirement planning expertise, additional tax planning resources,” Ariyan said. “Those are the sort of things that we continue to have a need for greater capacity, in addition to the platform we’ve already built, both through acquisition and through hiring, so that type of asset we will stretch for.”
Corey Kupfer, a lawyer specializing in M&A work for registered investment advisors, noted consolidators” predictions of a sales price decline may not be entirely impartial.
“Because, you know, they’re going to be at the negotiating table,” Kupfer said.
Kupfer said he doubts a large correction is coming but he wouldn’t be surprised if prices have reached a point where they’ll hold steady.
“But even if we are at a plateau, we’re at a plateau that’s probably two and a half to three times what the plateau was five to seven years ago,” Kupfer said. “So it’s not a bad plateau.”
READ MORE: Why RIAs, bigger than ever, aren’t necessarily growing
Even if acquirers are starting to predict a decline in prices, potential RIA sellers aren’t necessarily seeing things the same way. Consolidators, according to DeVoe’s survey, reported that the “disconnect” between what they are willing to pay and what RIA owners expect is widening.
“The disconnect is understandable,” DeVoe wrote. “Years of record transaction volume and headline-grabbing valuations have shaped seller expectations. Industry coverage often focuses on the premium multiples paid by private equity for META-RIAs, creating the impression that those valuations represent the broader market.”
Perceptions that deal valuations keep climbing have been corroborated in other industry reports. In its RIA Deal Room report for last year, industry consultant firm Advisor Growth Strategies found that the median valuation placed on RIAs came to 11.6 times their EBITDA in 2025. That was up from a multiple of 11 the year before.
READ MORE: Markets sent RIA assets surging. What that means for EBITDA multiples
Whatever the median EBITDA valuation, the actual prices RIAs are fetching in individual deals range widely, DeVoe found. Assets under management totals were one of the biggest influences on whether an RIA would be a desirable acquisition target and, presumably, command a higher sales price.
Firms with between $1 billion and $5 billion in AUM were the most popular among potential purchases for large consolidators, according to DeVoe. Forty-six percent of the respondents said they prefer buying RIAs with asset totals in that range, while 27% said they want to buy advisory firms with between $500 million and $1 billion in AUM. None showed interest in RIAs in the smallest category of $100 million to $500 million.
READ MORE: How debt and recruiting risks threaten big RIAs
The type of buyer pursuing a transaction also has a large influence on sales prices, DeVoe found. When advisors who are already part of a large firm sell their books of business as part of a retirement plan, they’re likely to fetch a price on the lower end of the spectrum. The highest EBITDA multiples tend to go to RIAs that enter into deals with outside consolidators backed by private-equity owners, the report found.
“The result is a recent dynamic where a PE-backed consolidator may pay nearly twice as much as an internal succession transaction for the same firm,” DeVoe wrote.
Despite predictions of a possible correction in sales prices, the pace of RIA mergers and acquisitions shows no signs of slackening. DeVoe found that 167 industry deals were completed in the first half of this year, up from 148 during the same period of 2025. Last year, the total number of completed deals hit a record of 322.
