2024 was a productive year for merger-and-acquisition activity across the wealth management landscape, featuring notable deals such as Wealth Enhancement Group's purchase of Levy Wealth Management Group and Hightower's majority stake in the Boston-based NEPC. Experts say appetites for such deals are poised to grow in 2025.
Jim Cahn, chair of the investment committee and chief strategy officer at Wealth Enhancement, said that deal volume across the industry will continue to grow as scale continues to drive "better client outcomes and more efficiency within the RIA space."
"We see a lot of new entrants trying to gain scale and bidding for deals, but it will be hard to catch up to the current industry leaders as they have an advantage," Cahn said. "Sellers are better off working with an experienced buyer."
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Despite the private equity wave sweeping across the wealth management landscape, as firms sell ownership stakes to outsiders in exchange for a stable source of funding for growth, many leaders are remaining independent or pursuing mergers with competitors to achieve scale while retaining full control.
Leaders of the Atlanta-based SFA Partners, which has roughly $7 billion in AUM, said in a prior interview with Financial Planning that while aware of the benefits of private equity financing, the tradeoff of ownership struggles isn't worth it.
"We just celebrated 21 years in the business. … So in 21 years, you can obviously tell that firms that started around the same time that we did, a lot of them are gone," Jamie Mackay, president and chief operating officer of SFA, said in an interview with FP's
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All of this is subject to change. As President-elect Donald Trump's administration begins its work amid a lowered interest rate environment, regulatory experts are predicting deal volume to accelerate.
"M&A looks to accelerate in 2025 as the Trump administration takes over and brings changes in leadership at the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission. … The DOJ's and FTC's current leadership has been pro-consumer and seen as a stalwart against corporate consolidation," said Joseph J. Raetzer, business lawyer and consultant.
Raul Gastesi, partner and cofounder of the Florida-based law firm Gastesi, Lopez & Mestre, agreed that "less regulation and a change in leadership at the FTC" will have a significant effect on M&A activity.
Read on to learn more about the high-profile deals announced in 2024.
Cetera Financial Group acquires Concourse Financial Group Securities
The San Diego-based Cetera Financial Group
The deal for CFGS, a Birmingham, Alabama-based subsidiary of insurance company Protective Life Corporation, is anticipated to net Cetera roughly 350 advisors with $4 billion in assets under management and $12 billion under administration. Cetera, with 12,000 finance experts and $224 billion under management, expects to finalize the acquisition in the first quarter of this year for an untold amount.
"Cetera has a proven track record of acquiring and successfully integrating independent broker-dealers affiliated with insurance organizations, and Concourse Financial Group Securities represents a tremendous opportunity in today's rapidly consolidating market," Mike Durbin, CEO of Cetera Holdings, said in a
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The breakup between LPL and WEG
Last month, leaders with the Minneapolis-based investment advisory firm Wealth Enhancement Group confirmed predictions that it was the second of two large entities to break away from LPL Financial following an announcement during a
WEG partnered with LPL for more than 17 years as an office of supervisory jurisdiction, which is a sizable practice that works within an independent broker-dealer to execute specific supervisory functions.
"The two firms will be amicably ending their relationship effective June 30, 2025, as each pursues its own growth objectives," according to a WEG spokesperson.
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BlackRock's $12 billion purchase of HPS
Executives at BlackRock struck a deal to purchase the New York-based HPS Investment Partners last month in an all-stock agreement valued at roughly $12 billion.
Scott Kapnick, Scot French and Michael Patterson, founders of HPS, will go on to lead a private financing business unit within BlackRock upon finalization of the deal, seeing the trio join BlackRock's global executive committee and Kapnick additionally become an observer to the firm's board of directors. The new unit will "unite direct lending, fund finance, and BlackRock's GP and LP solutions (fund of funds, GP/LP secondaries, co-investments)," according to a
The combination of the two will position BlackRock with about $220 billion in assets and room to grow with insurance clients and in investment-grade private debt, the firm said.
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Robinhood announces $300 million deal to buy TradePMR
Robinhood Markets, the California financial services company, announced that it plans to purchase the custodial and portfolio management platform provider TradePMR in a cash and stock deal worth roughly $300 million.
The purchase, which current predictions expect to close sometime in the first half of this year, will provide Robinhood with a wealth of registered investment advisors for its current client base and further its path into the retail investment markets, according to the
"The TradePMR team has one of the strongest RIA networks in the industry," Vlad Tenev, chairman and CEO at Robinhood, said in the release. "We're excited to join forces to build a category-defining advisory platform for the next generation."
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Pathstone's groundbreaking purchase of Hall Capital Partners
If finalized, the acquisition of Hall Capital would boost Pathstone's total assets under management to $100 billion and total assets under advisement and administration to roughly $160 billion — making it the firm's largest purchase ever. The New York- and San Francisco-based Hall Capital oversees 130 clients with roughly $45 billion in assets.
"From the beginning, we have strived and prided ourselves on our ability to meet the needs of our clients, and we truly believe this combination brings together two complementary organizations who will benefit immensely from collaboration and sharing of resources," Katie Hall, cofounder and cochair of Hall Capital, said in an
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