17 Top Financial Services M&A Deals of 2021

Related: 12 Best & Worst Broker-Dealers: Q3 Earnings, 2021

This year's industry news included a large variety of mergers and acquisitions, though none were as big as last year's $22 billion Schwab-TD Ameritrade transaction. Still, M&A activity has been fast and furious so far in 2021, as consolidation continues across financial services. This trend has affected asset managers, broker-dealer, RIAs, custodians, fintech firms and other financial organizations. In the RIA space, for instance, M&A activity in the first three quarters of 2021 hit 165 deals, eclipsing 2021's full-year activity of 159 transactions, according to Devoe & Co. This new high-water mark makes 2021 the eighth consecutive record year of RIA M&A activity. In the asset management arena, BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard got into the act. Other big financial firms making deals so far in 2021 include Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and T. Rowe Price. Several of these M&As involved firms focused on direct indexing. The gallery above looks at the most influential transactions affecting advisors this year through Nov. 15.