Short of a major recession or another black swan event that derails the broader economic momentum, signs point to 2026 building on the current record year of advisor industry merger and acquisition activity.
Some firms, in fact, that have sought outside capital and maintained debt discipline could take advantage of any economic swoon — scooping up weakened rivals or adding to their in-house capabilities through adjacent opportunities in accounting, asset management or financial technology.
What’s certain, according to Allen Darby, the founder and CEO of Alaris Acquisitions, a sell-side consulting firm, is that an aging advisor population will continue seeing M&A transactions as a key part of succession planning. Younger advisors, he observes, will continue to found independent firms that will have potential to flourish amid fee-based, fiduciary financial planning demand.
Darby’s firm achieved a record amount of business in 2025 supporting sellers and celebrated the launch of an M&A portal for buyers. He expects records to be set in 2026 and “throughout the foreseeable future.”
“I’ve been asking myself for years now where the ceiling could be for annual transactions, and we still haven’t found it, even after year upon year of record dealmaking,” Darby recently told ThinkAdvisor. “I don’t think there’s any strong reason to think we’re at capacity right now in terms of industry M&A.”
Pressure of Succession Planning
Darby, on a daily basis, sees the pressing need for strategic succession planning.
“Demographics are a reality in this conversation,” Darby said. “You see a different average partner age depending on what research you look at, but my sense is that it’s anywhere from, say, 55 to 60. These aren’t folks who necessarily want to leave the industry tomorrow, but they aren’t going to be able to stay in the business forever.”
Many industry partners care deeply about the enterprises they have built — including the clients, fellow advisors, staff and other stakeholders. As such, Darby said, many are as focused on finding the right fit through a “sell and stay” strategy as they are in squeezing every possible dollar out of a sale.
“Very few deals that we see get done today involve an advisor just taking a big lump sum of cash and walking away to go to the beach,” Darby said. “The acquirers don’t want that, and most advisors don’t either. They’re often staying on three years at the minimum, if not more.”
Fewer acquirers are making cash-only offers, he notes, instead choosing to offer an equity stake in the larger organization as a form of compensation and an incentive to stay on and help continue to grow their practice.
Why Younger Sellers Could Become a Big Trend
Another trend driving M&A expectations, Darby details, is a growing interest among firm founders in their 40s and 50s looking to sell as a means of solving key growth and operational challenges.
“Taking chips off the table and building an exit ramp isn’t the only reason to consider a transaction,” Darby said. “For younger firm leaders, it can be appealing to swap equity in your firm for a stake in an even faster-growing, more sophisticated enterprise. I think there are a lot of younger advisors who are sort of waking up to this possibility.”
They’re able to draw insight from older advisors who have made transitions and gained access to new capabilities and sources of organic growth — all without losing autonomy or an entrepreneurial mindset.
“Younger and older advisors alike are realizing that these buyers are not interested in taking entrepreneurs and turning them into robotic employees,” Darby said. “A buyer will probably want them to adopt different technology, improved processes and new systems, sure. But they largely still want them to act like the entrepreneur that made them successful in the first place.”
Effects of a Market Crash
As to what could dampen the pace of M&A in 2026, Darby said, one candidate would be heightened market volatility or even an extended pullback beyond what was seen most recently in 2022.
“We don't know when something like that is going to happen, but it will happen eventually,” Darby said. “A big pullback could lead to a pause in transactions, and those who have signed letters of intent could see a push from buyers to reprice the transaction. That could potentially cause some tensions and fewer transactions, but there are mechanisms to navigate this.”
Sellers could abandon the deal even after signing such a letter, he noted, and then wait for market conditions to improve before shopping for a new offer.
“That’s one option, but frankly just walking away isn’t going to be necessary or preferable for a lot of sellers, especially those who are entering the transaction because they have found a firm and a culture that they really want to be a part of,” Darby said. “We’re always instructing our clients to look at the bigger picture and not get hung up purely on the point-in-time economics.”
Savvy buyers looking to pick up talented advisor teams understand these dynamics, as well, so they are likely to structure transactions to allow the valuation to repair when markets recover.
“There’s a variety of ways you can accomplish this,” Darby said. “Some buyers will even agree not to reprise based on market movements after the LOI is signed. Others might offer a more attractive earn-out or an extended retention payment to ease much of the pain of a lower up-front valuation.”
Pictured: Allen Darby
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