Yearly RIA Deal Count Hits 200: DeVoe
By comparison, RIAs made 159 M&A deals in all of 2020, DeVoe & Co. reports.
RIA merger and acquisition transactions hit the 200 mark just before the Thanksgiving holiday, achieving another landmark level, DeVoe & Company reported Monday.
This year is the eighth successive record year for RIA M&A activity, the report said.
The industry posted 159 transactions in 2020 and 131 in 2019. Transaction volume for 2021 is already more than double the 101 transactions posted in 2018.
The report forecasts that 2021 will end 45% above the previous calendar year record.
“Two hundred transactions with another month to go — 2021 is a whopper year for the record books,” David DeVoe, the firm’s founder and chief executive, said in a statement. “Acceleration of activity is most pronounced among larger firms.”
According to the report, $1 billion-plus firms comprise 42% of transactions for the year-to-date period.
The report attributed the acceleration of transactions to these key influences:
- Record high valuations
- Newfound focus on solving succession
- Realization that scale is necessary to compete
- Concerns about potential tax increases.