Advisor M&A Growth Is 'Subplot of a Bigger Story,' Says Schwab's Beatty

James Green | ThinkAdvisor, February 2017

Summary: In 2016, there was a record number of mergers and transactions in the RIA industry, Schwab Advisor Services reported today, echoing other recent measures of the advisor M&A space, but Jon Beatty of Schwab says the numbers are in fact a “subplot of a bigger story: the growth of the RIA industry. Since the independent advisor space is “thriving, you’d expect M&A to follow suit,” said the senior VP of SAS in a Wednesday interview.

So who are the “advisors in transition?” They include ‘breakaway brokers’ from the wirehouses, but that means both “individuals and teams” from the wirehouses but also “folks evolving from the independent BD model,” and especially the RIA “fiduciary mindset. The independent advisor industry and the fiduciary mindset sets up well for a growth-oriented advisor.”