The crucial dinner happened at The Committee Chophouse in Omaha. Around the table were top executives from Wells Trecaso Financial Group, an Ohio-based RIA with $570 million in assets under management, and Carson Wealth, with $31 billion. At issue? A possible acquisition of the former by the latter. The night focused on, yes, business—client services were discussed, as were plans for succession. But it also included talk of personal lives and reflected the “family environment” the Wells Trecaso team felt upon visiting Carson’s Nebraska headquarters. Later, Carson’s Michael Belloumini, senior vice-president of M&A, would describe it as one of the “most enjoyable” business dinners he’d been to in over two decades in the industry. The deal went through in late September, and Carson strengthened its Midwest presence. Wells Trecaso ensured its firm will continue the legacy it started, meeting not only current clients’ needs but those of future generations. But what both sides valued most went far beyond sale price to those business details and, the clincher, their alignment on values and culture.
Welcome to the M&A landscape of wealth management firms in 2025. A red-hot market in recent years has made transactions in the sector legion, but those deals have also evolved in nature. Says John Orsini, a Director at global consulting and investment banking firm MarshBerry, and who was the exclusive advisor to Wells Trecaso on the deal, “The price takes care of itself 100% of the time” these days. “It always becomes about everything else. What will it mean for your generation two—those next levels of leaders?” he continues. What is the technological compatibility between firms, for example, and are the approaches to compensation aligned? Both will affect integration costs—so are those being considered and accounted for? The drilling down continues.
Part of the increased focus on culture and long-term growth is that early deals in this boom time were overfocused on elements like AUM size and geographic desirability. The “winner’s curse” is what Orsini calls it—quoting economist Richard Thaler—and it entailed buyers not only overfocusing on the wrong things but under-focusing on the right ones, which also include client mix, investment approach, and more. Overpaying for acquisitions and “abbreviated” due diligence, which also resulted from a rush to cash in, resulted. Profitability was dragged down. But another reason for the shift is that a rapid influx of private equity has increased the number and range of potential buyers, creating increased seller options.
To date, announced transactions are up 20% this year in comparison to the same time period in 2024—which itself was a record-breaking year. And private equity-backed buyers are much of the reason. 60 PE-backed firms are currently transacting and nine are completing their first deals in 2025. In total they represent 74% of all deals, which is also an increase over previous years. Not only has this PE-influx changed the financial landscape but, again, it’s led to an increasingly diverse group of buyers. Many of these new acquirers are smaller than the national firms that dominated acquisitions in previous years, and offer opportunities for sellers to retain leadership roles and continue to shape strategy. In essence, they offer true partnership.
Why now? Some of it’s due to what Orsini calls the sector’s Great Awakening, which was set in motion during the pandemic. “There were a lot of owners whose businesses had been growing for quite some time and they were faced with some level of decision in 2020: their mortality was brought to question, they found different things that they wanted to do, or they said, ‘I’ve had this asset. I’m worried about who can take it over.'” As a result, many began to consider an exit strategy. Consolidation of the wealth advisory landscape resulted. This, in turn, changed the game for the independent players who were left. Instead of being surrounded by comparably-sized firms, they found themselves competing with national players with local branches. Orsini says, “They were faced with their own decision: Do I want to go this alone?'” This would entail, of course, hiring a CFO, creating an HR team, and more. “Some people say, ‘Yeah, this is my passion. I don’t really care about managing clients’ money, I want to run a business.’ But 80% are not for that. So then they start to look at potential strategic partners.”
Now, notes Orsini, much of this change is positive for the sector. But it’s led to increasing deal complexity. Valuations must be made with more sophistication and take into account such intangibles as company values. Up-to-the-minute market information is more key than ever. And bankers have the ability to deliver those things in a way that independents are systematically disadvantaged from doing for themselves. “There’s information asymmetry,” notes Orsini, whose firm has advised on over 1300 transactions totaling $31 billion in value in the financial sphere. “An advisory could have conversations with 10 buyers and do as much research as they’d like. But we have all the information—we know every aspect of the contracts. We know where we can negotiate, where the points of leverage that we have are. So we can put you in front of the right six or eight firms that you can then work through a process with to figure out where your landing place would be.”
So, should firms act now? Each situation is different and the timing may not be right for some. What one doesn’t want to do, however, is wait too long—or stay out of the loop when it comes to assessing current options and the landscape. “We think about these things in 18-month increments,” concludes Orsini. “And right now things look very, very positive. They’re very bullish. But we don’t know that this will go forever.”
[h6] To download MarshBerry’s latest quarterly Wealth M&A report, go here.To learn more about how MarshBerry can help your firm determine its path forward, please email or call John Orsini, Director, at 440.220.4116.
