Tracking Wealth Management M&A

Consolidation in wealth management has moved from a trend to a structural feature of the industry.

Private-equity capital, sovereign wealth funds and the largest asset managers are all competing for the same things: adviser relationships, the retirement funnel, and the technology that sits between products and end clients.

Below is a list of the deals that matter, newest first. A summary table and then the key details.

Deal size: Reported ~$4–4.6bn (terms undisclosed) · Announced: 26 August 2026

Vanguard, the roughly $13tn index-fund giant that built itself almost entirely without acquisitions, agreed to buy Altruist, an AI-forward custody and wealthtech platform built for independent RIAs. Terms weren't officially disclosed; press reports put the price at about $4bn (Wall Street Journal) to $4.6bn (Axios). Vanguard had been an Altruist backer since 2020. What it is really buying is the infrastructure that sits between its products and advised investors: a purpose-built adviser platform, self-clearing custody (competing directly with Schwab and Fidelity), account-opening, trading, billing and reporting workflow, and established relationships with independent advisers. Altruist keeps its brand and leadership and runs as a standalone business. The rationale is distribution and proximity to the end client, meeting investors where they already receive advice, rather than simply adding managed assets.

Deal size: Undisclosed · Announced: 9 October 2025

Creative Planning, one of the largest US RIAs, agreed to acquire SageView, a leading independent retirement-plan consulting firm with about $250bn in assets under management and advisement across 36 offices and relationships with 11,800 employer retirement plans. Private-equity owner Aquiline exits. Combined, the two firms expect to represent around $640bn in total client assets, 550-plus advisers and more than 80,000 private-wealth clients. Scale matters, but the strategic prize is the retirement funnel: workplace plans hand Creative Planning early relationships with millions of savers who later roll over balances, change jobs, inherit money and need wealth, tax and estate advice. In effect, it is a way to own the client relationship long before those clients are visibly wealthy.

Deal size: Undisclosed · Announced: September 2025

Corient, the US wealth arm of CI Financial, now owned by Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Capital, announced the acquisitions of Stonehage Fleming and Stanhope Capital, which together brought more than $214bn of client assets; Corient reported roughly $508bn of global client assets by June 2026. Stonehage Fleming adds deep multi-family-office capability and an international footprint across EMEA; Stanhope adds European ultra-high-net-worth investment management and advisory expertise. The stated ambition is to create the world's largest non-bank wealth manager and multi-family office focused on HNW and UHNW clients, spanning investment management, alternatives, tax, estate planning, trusts, governance, philanthropy, reporting and family-office administration, providing bank-like breadth without becoming a bank.

Deal size: Undisclosed; values OneDigital above $7bn · Announced: 19 September 2025

Funds managed by Stone Point Capital and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) took a majority stake in OneDigital, an Atlanta-based insurance brokerage, HR-consulting and financial-services platform with roughly $143bn in assets under management and advisement. The transaction values OneDigital in excess of $7bn. The investors bought their stake from existing shareholders, including Onex, which remains a significant minority owner. It was the firm's fourth recapitalisation. The capital is earmarked for continued multi-vertical growth across employee benefits, retirement and wealth management, through both organic expansion and further acquisitions. The deal closed in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Deal size: ~$2.7bn cash · Announced: 31 March 2025

LPL Financial, the largest US independent broker-dealer, agreed to buy Commonwealth Financial Network, a partner-owned firm long celebrated for boutique, high-touch adviser service (ranked #1 in independent adviser satisfaction by J.D. Power many years running). At announcement Commonwealth had about 2,900 advisers and roughly $285bn in assets; by the August 2025 close LPL cited around 3,000 advisers and about $305bn. This is the classic scale play: move thousands of advisers and hundreds of billions of assets onto LPL's much larger operating platform to capture operating leverage. LPL financed the deal with a mix of cash, debt and equity, and is spending heavily to replicate Commonwealth's service culture and retain its advisers through the transition.

Deal size: ~C$4.7bn equity / ~C$12.1bn enterprise value · Announced: 25 November 2024

Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Capital agreed to take Canada's CI Financial private at C$32.00 per share, valuing CI's equity at about C$4.7bn and implying an enterprise value of roughly C$12.1bn, making it one of the largest Canadian take-privates in a decade. CI keeps its Canadian operations, headquarters, brand and management team (led by CEO Kurt MacAlpine), independent of Mubadala's other portfolio businesses. The investment provides long-term, stable capital to fund CI's strategy, and in particular the rapid build-out of its US private-wealth business, which operates under the Corient brand. The transaction closed in August 2025.

Deal size: Undisclosed · Announced: 16 October 2024

Pathstone, a partner-owned advisory and family-office firm, agreed to acquire Hall Capital Partners, a bi-coastal (San Francisco and New York) RIA with about $45bn in assets and roughly 180 professionals serving UHNW families, endowments and foundations. Terms weren't disclosed; Pathstone's private-equity backers, Kelso and Lovell Minnick, and both management teams invested fresh capital. The deal lifted Pathstone to nearly $160bn in assets under advisement and administration, with Hall founder Katie Hall becoming co-chair. Crucially, Pathstone was not buying Hall to strip out duplicate costs; it wanted Hall's institutional-quality investment research and portfolio-management capabilities and its long-standing UHNW and institutional relationships. For the UHNW market, breadth and depth of capability are the real assets.

Deal size: Undisclosed; reported ~$2bn stake at a $15bn-plus valuation · Announced: 30 September 2024

Private-equity firm TPG, through TPG Capital, made a substantial minority investment in Creative Planning, the Overland Park RIA led by Peter Mallouk that oversees around $375bn in combined assets. Official terms weren't disclosed; Reuters reported TPG was taking roughly a $2bn stake in a deal valuing Creative Planning at more than $15bn (Bloomberg later cited about $16bn including debt). Mallouk keeps control and a majority stake; TPG joins General Atlantic, a minority holder since 2020. The investment came within days of TPG taking a minority stake in Homrich Berg, part of a broader wave of private capital chasing the steady fee income and roll-up potential of large RIAs.

Deal size: $4.5bn ($63.15 per share) · Announced: 11 July 2024

Bain Capital agreed to take Envestnet private for $4.5bn, with Reverence Capital participating. Envestnet is core wealth-management plumbing: an integrated technology, data and platform provider spanning more than $6tn in platform assets, nearly 20m accounts and over 100,000 advisers. The most revealing feature of the deal is the co-investors: BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, Franklin Templeton and State Street Global Advisors all committed to minority positions. That line-up signals how strategically valuable control of the adviser-to-product infrastructure has become, with asset managers competing over the pipes and the client connection, not just over who manages the money. The transaction closed in late 2024.

Deal size: Up to $3bn for a minority stake / $12.75bn valuation · Announced: 16 June 2024

Advent International and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) agreed to a minority common-stock investment of at least $2.5bn and up to $3bn in Fisher Investments, valuing the firm at $12.75bn. It was Fisher's first outside investment; previously, the firm had been owned only by family and employees. The deal was structured largely around founder Ken Fisher's long-term estate planning. Fisher remains executive chairman and co-CIO and keeps majority ownership and more than 70% of the voting shares, with CEO Damian Ornani continuing to run day-to-day operations. Fisher manages roughly $275–300bn across institutional and private-client businesses. The deal completed in January 2025.

Deal size: ~$805m upfront + up to $230m retention earn-out · Announced: 13 February 2024

LPL agreed to acquire Atria Wealth Solutions, a New York-based broker-dealer aggregator (backed by Lee Equity Partners) with about 2,400 advisers and roughly $100bn in client assets across seven brokerages, several of which serve banks and credit unions. LPL pays approximately $805m upfront, with up to a further $230m tied to adviser retention, taking total potential consideration to about $1.04bn. Atria's brokerage and advisory assets transition onto LPL's platform. It is another scale and consolidation move, adding advisers plus valuable bank and credit-union relationships. The deal closed on 1 October 2024, at an initial cash payment of about $835m including working-capital adjustments.

Deal size: Undisclosed; ~$700m capital benefit to Lincoln · Announced: 14 December 2023

Osaic (formerly Advisor Group) agreed to acquire Lincoln Financial's wealth-management business, Lincoln Financial Advisors and Lincoln Financial Securities, a national network of about 1,450 advisers overseeing roughly $108bn (about $71bn advised and $38bn managed). The parties did not disclose a headline purchase price; Lincoln described approximately $700m of capital benefit on closing, used mainly to strengthen its risk-based capital, while remaining a long-term distribution partner to Osaic. The two firms joined Osaic intact as standalone entities, with minimal repapering and no change to client account numbers, before converting onto Osaic's platform. The acquisition closed in 2024, and adds significant scale to Osaic's national adviser network.

Deal size: ~$1.2bn all-cash ($26 per share) · Announced: 11 September 2023

Cetera Financial Group (backed by Genstar Capital) agreed to buy Avantax, a tax-focused financial-planning and wealth-management firm (formerly Blucora), in an all-cash deal valuing it at about $1.2bn including net debt, equivalent to $26 per share and roughly a 30% premium. Avantax brought 3,078 financial professionals, $83.8bn in assets under administration and $42.6bn under management, along with deep relationships with CPA and accounting firms and genuine tax expertise. Avantax became a standalone business unit within Cetera, and the deal added Fidelity as a custodian, advancing Cetera's multi-custodial strategy. The transaction was expected to close by the end of 2023. The tax capability is the strategic point: another layer of the wealth-management stack.

Deal size: Undisclosed · Announced: 28 August 2023

Creative Planning agreed to buy Goldman Sachs' Personal Financial Management (PFM) unit, the former United Capital business that Goldman had acquired in 2019 for $750m and rebranded. Terms weren't disclosed. For Goldman the sale marked a retreat from mass-affluent retail wealth to concentrate on ultra-high-net-worth and workplace advice; for Creative Planning it added scale (the firm cited about $245bn in combined assets and more than 2,100 employees around the deal) and a revived United Capital brand, alongside a new multi-billion-dollar custody relationship with Goldman Sachs Advisor Solutions. The unit, roughly $25bn when Goldman bought it in 2019, had shrunk to about $20bn across some 125 advisers by the time the deal closed in November 2023, after adviser departures.

Deal size: ~£839m (all-share) · Announced: 4 April 2023

UK wealth manager Rathbones agreed to combine with Investec Wealth & Investment UK in an all-share deal valued at about £839m, creating one of the UK's largest discretionary wealth managers with roughly £100bn in funds under management and administration. Investec took a minority position in the enlarged group, representing about 41.25% of the equity, with capped voting rights. The logic is domestic scale: pooling two sizeable UK private-client books to spread the rising fixed costs of technology, regulation, data and research across a much larger asset base. It is the same scale economics driving US consolidation, transplanted into a UK setting.

Deal size: >$7bn enterprise value ($53 per share) · Announced: 27 February 2023

Private-equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) agreed to take Focus Financial Partners private in an all-cash deal at $53 per share, an enterprise value above $7bn; existing backer Stone Point Capital retained a portion of its stake and helped provide equity financing. Focus is a partnership of around 88 independent, fiduciary RIA partner firms that keep operational independence while sharing scale, capital, resources and best practices. Taking Focus private, less than five years after its IPO, was pitched as giving it greater financial and operating flexibility to invest in and collaborate across its partner-firm network. The transaction closed on 31 August 2023.

Deal size: Undisclosed · Announced: 25 January 2023

Cetera agreed to acquire the retail wealth business of Securian Financial, comprising its broker-dealer, registered investment adviser and insurance agency, plus the equity of Securian Trust Company. The deal added more than 1,000 financial professionals across around 30 independent firms, representing $47.4bn in assets under administration and $24.8bn under management. The advisers were rebranded as Cetera Wealth Management Group within Cetera Advisor Networks, and Securian agreed to distribute its individual life and annuity products through Cetera's advisers. It reflects a recurring pattern in the sector: an insurer stepping back from retail wealth to refocus, feeding a scale-hungry consolidator. The acquisition closed in August 2023, with over 91% adviser retention and nearly $50bn in client assets.