Top 10 RIA Deals in the First Half of 2022
Mergers and acquisitions in the RIA sector continued to be relatively strong in the first half of 2022 despite challenges that included stock market volatility and ongoing inflation, according to DeVoe & Co. and Echelon Partners.
“RIA M&A activity continues to be very robust, despite the environment,” David DeVoe, CEO and founder of DeVoe & Co., recently told ThinkAdvisor.
“Challenging global and national economies, a volatile stock market, and interest rate increases typically lead to an M&A slowdown,” he noted.
But “given the momentum of the activity year-to-date,” he said, “the year will most likely exceed the 241 transactions last year.”
DeVoe expects 265 transactions in 2022.
He predicted, however, that the “trajectory” of RIA M&A activity “will flatten” going forward.
Based on deals in which the sellers were U.S. RIAs with over $100 million in assets under management, DeVoe said the top RIA M&A deal in the first half of this year was Penfund’s $75 million investment in Mariner Wealth Advisors ($55 billion). That deal was followed by Genstar Capital’s investment in Cerity Partners ($45 billion), he said.
Total wealth management M&A activity declined for the second straight quarter in Q2 this year, according to Echelon.
“Still, the activity in the first half of the year remains elevated relative to historic trends and keeps 2022 on pace to be another record-breaking year, barring a significant slowdown in deal activity in the second half,” Echelon said in its Q2 RIA M&A Deal Report.
“Deal activity continues to be dominated by ‘Strategic & Consolidator’ acquirers who announced 45.6% of wealth management transactions so far in 2022,” Echelon said, adding: “Capital remains available due to continued interest from both private equity and debt sources.”
Below are the top 10 RIA M&A deals in the first six months of 2022 based on the seller’s assets, according to Echelon, which includes wirehouse buyers, unlike DeVoe & Co. (DeVoe says it focuses on the acquisitions and mergers of “true” RIAs based in the U.S. with $100 million or more in AUM. Echelon includes U.S. and non-U.S. companies.)
10. Morningstar Invests $30M in TAMP SMArtX
SMArtX Advisory Solutions, architect of the SMArtX turnkey asset management platform, announced in May that it closed on a Series D funding round with a $30 million investment by Morningstar Investment Management, a subsidiary of independent investment research provider Morningstar.
The announcement followed a press release in November reporting that SMArtX would power the Morningstar TAMP.
The Morningstar capital was to assist in the build out of SMArtX’s development capabilities, including those that will support Morningstar Investment Management’s existing TAMP and its direct indexing solution launching later this year, according to the firms.
SMArtX has been hosting direct indexing strategies for over four years and offers one of the largest direct indexing platforms in the industry with 133 strategies. It had client assets of about $19 billion, according to Echelon.
9. Kennedy Lewis Invests $175M in Sanctuary Wealth
RIA Sanctuary Wealth parent company Azimut Group said May 31 that Sanctuary closed on a $175 million investment from credit manager Kennedy Lewis Investment Management.
The funds were to be used to fuel Sanctuary’s M&A strategy and the organic growth of its partner firms, including enhancing the company’s technology solutions and talent management initiatives, Sanctuary and Kennedy Lewis said in a joint announcement July 13.
Launched in 2018, Sanctuary has accelerated its expansion in the last year, during which it has onboarded 20 new advisor teams from across the U.S., taking assets under advisement to about $25 billion, it said.
8. UBS Acquires Wealthfront
UBS Group said in January that it agreed to buy U.S. robo adviser Wealthfront for $1.4 billion in cash, the first major acquisition of a fintech company under UBS CEO Ralph Hamers.
