Over the last decade, industry watchers have been captivated by the blockbuster levels of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the registered investment advisor (RIA) landscape. Technologists underpin the operations of selling and buying firms and stand to gain or lose as advisors break away, combine, and potentially break away again in the M&A cycle. As this wave of consolidation influences how financial advice is delivered and to whom, all of these players will have to adapt their own growth strategies to survive and thrive.

This report, part two in a Datos Insights’ series on understanding M&A in the RIA channel, looks past the weekly deal headlines to draw out the common themes driving transactions from the perspectives of technology vendors―the technologists. This report is based on responses to three quantitative surveys conducted by Datos Insights from September 2023 to May 2024: Datos Insights’ 2023 Operations Leaders Survey, Datos Insights’ Executive Council Survey, and Datos Insights’ 2024 Advisor Survey.

Clients of Datos Insights’ Wealth Management service can download this report.

This report mentions AdvisorStream, Advyzon, Alliance Bernstein, AppCrown, Carson Group, CogniCor, Collation, Data Discovery, eMoney, Envestnet, FINTRX, FP Alpha, InterGen Data, Merit Financial Advisors, Nitrogen, Orion, Practifi, ReferMe IQ, and Summit Wealth Systems.