Advisor M&As on Track to Meet or Exceed 2019 Total: DeVoe

However, Q3 got off to a fast start, DeVoe noted, telling ThinkAdvisor: "July started with fireworks. We are already at 8 deals for the month."

Deal Size

In Q2, "the big surprise was the divergence, [with] large firms sales spiking while smaller firms dropped," DeVoe said.

Activity for firms with less than $1 billion in assets under management tumbled 35% in Q2 from a year ago, while activity for firms with more than $1 billion jumped 47%, according to DeVoe & Co.

As a result, the average transaction size "shot up" to $942 million, almost 27% higher than the 2019 average, the firm noted.

In light of the greater number of transactions above $1 billion, it was "not surprising that consolidators maintained a strong lead among the buyer categories," accounting for 44% of acquisition volume in Q2, the Deal Book said. That was up from their 41%-43% share of the past two years, it noted.

Standout acquirers within the consolidator category in the first half of 2020 included Emigrant Partners with three transactions, including a minority investment in $14.5 billion Stratos Wealth Group; Mercer Advisors and Captrust, also with three transactions each; and Hightower Advisors and Allworth Financial with two transactions each.

"In contrast, RIAs lost share," coming in at 33% of acquisitions, down six percentage points from 2019, it said. Creative Planning was No. 1 with four transactions through the end of June. MAI Capital Management, Frontier Wealth Management and the Mather Group each posted two acquisitions in the period.

— Check out RIA M&A Activity Recovered in June Despite Pandemic: Fidelity on ThinkAdvisor.