If you built your RIA firm as if you were selling it tomorrow, how much more valuable would it be today?

We know intuitively that when RIA firms deliver great service, efficiency and profitability they’re likely to attract buyers. This is especially true in what’s shaping up to be a historic year for deal-making in the wealth management industry, with 345 deals so far in 2025 and a total of 440 expected*. But sharpening your firm’s strategic and operational performance would boost its value no matter when (or if) you planned to sell.

Whether your exit is next year or decades away, building an advisory firm as if you planned to sell creates powerful options. Here are four strategies to maximize your options, no matter your ultimate goal.

1.  Get your firm’s financials sharpened for showtime

A critical step in being M&A-ready is creating a clear, concise picture of your firm’s financials that can be presented to potential buyers. Acquiring firms typically ask for five years of financials to fully grasp the business fundamentals of a potential M&A target. Many times, however, firms only provide two or three years of data, often in PDF form and sometimes with P&L line items that are different from year to year. This raises questions about a firm’s readiness for M&A and the precision of its financial management processes.

Takeaway: Create and regularly update a five-year review of your firm’s financials, using a tool that allows a prospective buyer to examine them quickly. Since the sale process serves as a stress test of the business, highlighting risks and opportunities, this review will put your firm’s resiliency in the best light, while also serving as a resource for overall business management.

2. Showcase your commitment to top-tier talent

Prospective buyers are keenly interested in the quality of talent in your organization. They understand that a firm’s people drive business value, so your process for attracting talent is paramount. Firms that make talent a priority tend to emphasize engagement and culture. They showcase their vision and mission and tie these directly to what individuals can contribute personally and professionally if they join the firm.

Once people join a firm, they want visibility into a career path and how they might share equity in the firm. Sometimes they want to move faster than the firm is willing or able to accommodate, because the next position isn’t available yet. It’s important for firms to think through and document career paths and career progression to manage expectations. Another way to keep rising talent engaged and growing professionally is by supporting their attendance at conferences and events that bring together next-generation leaders to learn from industry experts, share ideas, and build out their network.

Takeaway: RIAs in acquisition mode are in the market to buy talent because top-tier professionals are hard to come by. They consider talent acquisition to be a key part of a deal. Prospective sellers can spotlight their talent by establishing and documenting recruitment and retention processes, metrics and results.

3.  Document institutional quality processes to show rigor; readiness for integration

Well-documented, institutional quality work processes and procedures signal to a prospective buyer that a target firm is well positioned for integration and subsequent high performance. Documentation on the technology side offers transparency into how well the firm has reduced “swivel chair” inefficiencies by choosing its technology partners well and empowering team members to use advanced tools to deliver results for clients. “Swivel chair” inefficiencies can refer to the time, errors, and stress caused by logging into disconnected systems to manage client relationships.

Balancing team flexibility with good risk management is key. One method for achieving this balance is to implement process guardrails. Firms that use a customer relationship management (CRM) platform like Salesforce can present employees with relevant questions when they, for example, make trade requests or process distributions. This process allows the firm to monitor compliance and client approvals before transactions are executed. It also lets team members perform critical functions in ways that are scalable.

Takeaway: When a firm’s processes are well thought out and documented from both tech and team perspectives, it increases a prospective buyer’s confidence that the target firm can handle the rigors of a business integration with ease and efficiency. Even if you’re not currently planning to sell, ensuring the resiliency of business processes will add value as your firm continues to grow.

4.  Drive organic growth by identifying ideal clients and delivering outstanding experiences

A firm’s organic growth momentum is one of the chief attractions to prospective buyers. They want to know if a firm is growing organically and whether this growth is repeatable and scalable, and not random. They also want to know if the firm has a clearly defined target client profile and can effectively deliver differentiated and comprehensive services to that client.

M&A-ready firms can impress prospective buyers with how they shape the experiences of their ideal clients, from first contact through the onboarding process and across every subsequent micro-interaction. Services may extend beyond investment management, asset management and market-beating returns, possibly relying on outside partnerships to address the diverse needs of their ideal clients.

Driving double-digit, sustainable organic growth requires investment and continuing reinvestment in the business. Firms should treat business development, marketing and digital experiences not as expenses, but rather as critical investments in growth that deliver the requisite, measurable returns.

Takeaway: Firms that are M&A-ready have a clear view of their optimal client and invest in ways that position them to serve that client better than competitors can. This degree of differentiation and focus impresses prospective buyers while also allowing the firm to maintain its organic growth by being the best at serving the clients that drive success.

Is your firm evaluating its own technology this year? BNY Pershing can help. Contact a Sales Executive at (800) 445-4467.

This article is based on a panel discussion from Future Proof Festival 2025 entitled “Build Your Firm Like You’re Selling (Even If You’re Not).”

* RIA Deal Activity in 2025 Headed for Record, Echelon Says. By Jennifer Lea Reed, for Financial Advisor Magazine. October 16, 2025.