$295B in assets, 6,500 advisors: 2023's biggest IBD recruiting and M&A deals

The size of major recruiting and M&A deals involving independent brokerages surpassed last year's mega-moves by tens of billions of dollars in assets and thousands of financial advisors.

As shown in the rankings below, independent wealth management giants such as LPL Financial, Cetera Financial Group, Raymond James, Ameriprise, Creative Planning and others have completed huge recruiting wins and acquisitions in 2023. At a combined 6,545 advisors managing $295.3 billion in client assets, the volume at play in the 18 largest transitions in the sector this year put the 3,322 advisors and $229.6 billion in motion in the biggest deals of 2022 in a much smaller context. At least 41 transition announcements involving independent firms with $1 billion in client assets or more easily outpaced the 29 of similar stature last year.

The recruiting and M&A environment looks much different today than at the end of the stock and bond slump of 2022, according to Jim Cahn, the chief investments and business development officer of Plymouth, Minnesota-based registered investment advisory firm Wealth Enhancement Group. Cahn's firm is one of the most active RIA acquirers in the industry and uses LPL's brokerage and custodial services.

"The mood was a little sour coming into the year with the sell-off," Cahn said in an interview, noting the contrast with the end of 2023. "Lots of people wanted to sell, and our pipeline is as active or more active than it's been at any point in the last 10 years." 

Wealth Enhancement has topped $71 billion in assets under management after completing 15 M&A deals in 2023, with three more expected to close by the end of the year. The incoming firms have added 345 more financial advisors and other employees to the firm. Needs like technology, marketing, compliance, taxes and estate planning are prompting many RIAs to find larger partners, Cahn noted. The firm closed 39 other RIA M&A deals in the prior three years.

"The value of scale is being manifested. Smaller firms have really been challenged to deliver on the same value proposition that a large firm has," Cahn said. "There's a real push for smaller firms to join larger firms that have similar cultures for the purpose of getting access to the benefits of scale."

To see the rankings of the largest recruiting moves and M&A deals involving independent broker-dealers in 2023 in terms of client assets, scroll down the slideshow. For last year's list, click here. To view the 2021 rankings, follow this link. And find the 2020 list here.

Notes: The below figures reflect recruiting and M&A announcements by independent wealth management firms; these firms don't always disclose every single deal or all the relevant details, and they cite numbers that may not be verifiable in every case. To be included on the list, the announcement needed to involve a team either leaving, joining or staying in the independent brokerage channel.

Moves and transactions involving only employee brokerages whose advisors are direct W-2 employees or registered investment advisors without any ties to brokerages aren't eligible. The dates of the transitions refer to the technical changes on FINRA BrokerCheck or the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website, or the best available information from company announcements and news reports.

Moves or deals that are expected to close in 2024 or had yet to be announced as of Dec. 19, 2023, didn't make the list. That means that pending mega-moves and deals such as Prudential Advisors' transition to LPL Financial, Lincoln Financial Group's sale of its wealth management business to Osaic and Crown Capital Securities' merger into LPL must wait until next year.