Harris Baltch
Dynasty Investment Bank, the investment banking division of Dynasty Financial Partners, is marking its three-year anniversary with "M&A May" on its LinkedIn page.
The effort features content and conversations focused on how deals are sourced, structured and executed in the RIA market.
Last year, Dynasty Investment Bank — based in St. Petersburg, Florida — was involved in 15 completed transactions in the independent RIA industry across sell-side, buy-side, recruitment, strategic advisory and capital transactions, representing $162 billion of assets under management.
Recent Dynasty-advised transactions include Jazz Wealth on its sale to Steward Partners, Cyndeo Wealth Partners on its minority recapitalization with Rise Growth Partners and Abacus Global Management on its minority investment in Manning & Napier.
Harris Baltch, co-head of Dynasty Investment Bank, told ThinkAdvisor that while he was seeing continued high levels of activity, "firms are definitely taking a more disciplined approach to inorganic growth."
"Buyers are more conscious about expectations built into strong multiples," he said.
Baltch said key trends include more "buy and build" platforms, increased hiring of experienced M&A practitioners, embedding of private equity, inter-sector deals like asset managers or tech firms buying into the space and heightened due diligence around tech stacks and client data.
"Data integrity is a key part of valuations in the AI landscape today," he said.
There were over 300 RIA transactions in 2025, propelled in part by a wave of succession solutions that will see more than 100,000 advisors exit the industry over the next decade, according to Dynasty.
The pace of growth and dealmaking can also carry risks, said Baltch, and cultural alignment and integration are at the forefront.
"Advisors who join an RIA for its boutique culture could become disheartened if the firm grows exponentially and returns to the bureaucratic environment the advisor left," he said.
Also, with multiples at high levels, Baltch said valuations can become sticky as buyers risk harboring unrealistic assumptions about the value of their businesses.
"All firms would do well to consider succession planning as a need to do versus a nice to do, and not enough firms are considering equity structures or planning for the next generation of leadership," he said. "We see the winners in this heady environment as those firms who prioritize integration quality and client outcomes over deals alone."
In addition to "M&A May," Dynasty Investment Bank recently launched its "Breakaway Investment Banking" initiative. Dynasty Investment Bank also publishes a quarterly newsletter, "Inside the Deal."
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