InvestmentNews reported on October 15, 2026, citing DeVoe & Company's Q3 2026 RIA M&A Deal Book, that registered investment adviser deal activity fell 17% in the third quarter, ending a seven-quarter run of record-setting volume. The report counted 77 deals in Q3, down from 93 in the same quarter of 2025. Wealth Solutions Report also covered the same DeVoe figures.
Year to date through September, the firm counted 244 deals, slightly ahead of last year's record pace. Q1 2026 had 93 deals, matching a record quarter and up 24% year over year, and Q2 had 74. InvestmentNews reported that Q3 edged up from Q2, a softer decline than DeVoe's late-September preliminary data had suggested. Wealth Management reported that DeVoe had announced the preliminary 19% drop on September 24 at its M&A+ Succession Summit, when its count showed 72 deals as of September 22.
The mix of buyers and sellers shifted sharply, according to InvestmentNews. Consolidators announced 129 deals through September, a 53% share, up from 45% in 2024 and 49% in 2025. RIA buyers took 29% of deals, while the remaining category, covering private equity, broker-dealers and banks, dropped to 18%, the lowest since 2014. Mega sellers, defined as firms with more than $5 billion in assets under management, completed 41 deals through September. The 41 deals already exceed any full year on record, and they represent a record 17% share of the market. Small sellers with $100 million to $500 million in AUM held a 36% share, putting them on track for their lowest full-year share on record. Excluding mega deals, the average seller managed $1.02 billion and the median seller managed $625 million.
On the forecast, Wealth Solutions Report reported that DeVoe now expects 320 to 340 deals in 2026, compared with a record 322 in 2025. Its September forecast had been about 317 deals. The firm began the year projecting about 355 deals and cut that to 315 after spring volatility, before raising it again following a stronger September finish. The same report said October is off to a strong start, with M&A up 2% compared with October 14, 2025, and it anticipates completing over 15 deals for its clients in the following six months.
DeVoe links the slowdown to market volatility, including spikes in the VIX and the U.S.-Iran conflict in March 2026, which led owners to postpone sales, according to Wealth Solutions Report. InvestmentNews reported that the timing gap is wide, with a sale led by a banker usually taking about six months and a do-it-yourself transaction often stretching 12 to 18 months. According to InvestmentNews, the Federal Reserve's 25-basis-point increase in September came after nearly all Q3 deals were already in motion, though sustained higher borrowing costs could still test debt-reliant acquirers. Gordon Ross, president of DeVoe & Company, said the slowdown is real but that the forces behind RIA M&A have not gone away, according to InvestmentNews.
DeVoe & Company was founded in 2011 and positions its work as M&A, succession and valuation advice for RIAs, according to PitchBook's profile. Wealth Solutions Report identifies David DeVoe as founder and CEO. InvestmentNews describes the firm as San Francisco-based, while Wealth Management places it in Miami, so the reports conflict on headquarters. The firm's deal tracking covers independent RIAs with at least $100 million in AUM, and it does not disclose its own AUM. Other trackers count differently. AdvisorHub reported that Fidelity Institutional counted 151 transactions through August, putting 2026 on pace to fall short of 2025's record of 276. Wealth Management reported that Piper Sandler and Fintrx also published Q3 reports, and their analysts see no slowdown among capital-backed consolidators.
The report leaves several questions open. The firm's own projection has moved several times this year. Whether deals already in motion close as expected will show up in coming quarters, and InvestmentNews reported that sustained higher borrowing costs could still test debt-reliant acquirers.