Financial Advisor M&A ‘Balloon’ Amid Regulatory Burdens

by ExitAdvisor · 9th September 2016

Mergers and acquisitions of or involving financial advisors and firms could double to 1,000, possible more, this year. This is partly driven by principals retiring, but the increasing burden of regulations is also playing its part. There is a drive towards larger firms as they are seen as being better able to handle the regulatory burden and weather regulatory changes.

There were 495 transactions involving financial advisors in 2015, a 30% increase over the previous year.

The bulk of this year’s transactions are expected to come from independent advisors and insurance agents, said Chip Roame, managing director of Tiburon Strategic Advisors in Tiburon, Calif.

The 10-year transaction trend among financial advisors has slowly been rising from 257 financial advisor mergers in 2005. Older advisors are looking to get out of the market, while other principals seek growth and scale by buying smaller competitors, Roame said. Financial Advisor M&A ‘Balloon’ Amid Regulatory Burdens

There is a similar story in the insurance industry:

The number of insurance agency mergers and acquisitions in the first half of 2016 ranked as the second-most-active six-month period since 2008, with 232 announced deals, according to the OPTIS Partners’ M&A database. That level of activity is being… Now is the time to sell your independent agency, new data reveals