First-quarter 2013 saw the completion of 13 merger and acquisition deals totaling $5.8 billion in assets under management within the independent registered investment advisor segment, according to industrywide data compiled by Schwab Advisor Services and released Thursday.
It was the highest number of transactions recorded in the RIA sector since the first quarter of last year, when 17 deals closed, totaling $24 billion in AUM. Acquisition activity by RIAs increased in the quarter, with 54% of the total transactions closed by this buyer category.
However, overall deal size declined in the quarter for industrywide M&A transactions (see chart). Deal size for Q1 2013 averaged $447 million versus an average deal size of $1.3 billion for all of 2012, according to Schwab data.
"Though it's still very early in the year, this quarter's strong deal flow among RIAs is an indication that advisors are using M&A to increase the scale and footprint of their businesses," said Jon Beatty (right), senior vice president of sales and relationship management for Schwab Advisor Services, in a statement. "Although we saw an increase in RIAs buying other RIAs in Q1, the overall deal size declined as we didn't see a mega-deal like we saw in Q1 2012. We do, however, remain encouraged by the flows we have seen to date."
He was referring to Affiliated Managers Group's purchase of a majority equity interest in Veritable LP, which was announced in March 2012.
