RIA Valuations in 2026: How to Maximize Your Sale Price in a Cooling Market

After four years of record-high acquisition multiples, the RIA M&A market is entering a new phase. According to DeVoe & Company's Q2 2026 RIA Deal Book, 82% of the industry's most active buyers now expect valuations to hold steady over the next six months, 18% expect them to decline, and none expect further gains. For firm owners, the strategy has to shift from riding market momentum to actively defending enterprise value — and from what we see across AdvisorLaw's own M&A practice, the sellers who do that well still command strong outcomes, even in a cooling market.

• Valuations Have Plateaued: 82% of surveyed consolidators expect flat valuations through the second half of 2026, and 18% expect declines — a sharp reversal from 2025, when 8% still expected valuations to rise (DeVoe & Company, Q2 2026).
• The Expectation Gap Is Widening: 73% of consolidators say the gap between what sellers expect and what buyers are willing to pay is getting wider, versus just 9% who see it narrowing (DeVoe & Company, Q2 2026).
• Consolidator Preference Isn't the Whole Market: 46% of consolidators name $1B–$5B AUM firms as their top target, and none name sub-$500M firms as a primary target — but firms under $500M still accounted for roughly 36% of all RIA transactions in Q2 2026. Demand for smaller practices hasn't disappeared; it's just less concentrated among the handful of buyers chasing headline deals.
• Compliance Directly Shapes Deal Economics: Regulatory red flags discovered in diligence don't just put a deal at risk — they routinely show up as added escrow, purchase-price adjustments, or reduced cash at closing.

The headline multiples north of 20x that dominate industry coverage are increasingly concentrated among mega-RIAs — typically firms with $10B or more in AUM and standout organic growth, per DeVoe & Company. For most of the market, anchoring negotiations to those historical peaks creates unnecessary friction at the table. DeVoe's own analysts point to this exact dynamic behind the widening expectation gap: years of coverage of premium private-equity pricing have shaped seller expectations, even though those numbers rarely represent the broader market. Establishing a data-driven valuation — one that reflects your firm's actual revenue quality, client retention, and operating overhead — before going to market is the clearest way to close that gap.

While larger consolidators are increasingly prioritizing billion-dollar RIAs, smaller independent advisory practices continue to represent attractive acquisition opportunities for regional RIAs, strategic buyers, and firms seeking to expand their geographic presence. The data backs this up: even as 46% of consolidators name $1B–$5B firms as their top target, firms under $500M in AUM still accounted for roughly 42% of consolidator transactions and about 36% of all RIA deals in the second quarter of 2026, per DeVoe & Company. Demand for smaller practices hasn’t disappeared — it’s just less concentrated among the handful of buyers chasing headline deals.