A weekly update on issues important to the Investment Management industry
Victory Capital is a relative newcomer to the small list of publicly traded asset managers. Since its IPO, it has quietly outperformed many publicly traded peers by employing an acquisition-driven growth strategy that has delivered impressive shareholder returns. In this post, we take a closer look at the factors driving Victory’s success.
Aside from the initial startup years, when fledgling RIAs struggle to achieve profitability, the most difficult period that most firms endure is the transition from the founding generation of leadership to G2. For those that make the transition, getting from the second generation to the third, and so forth, is comparatively easy. Much of this difficulty relates to a contemporaneous transition of ownership — not just the identities of the owners but also the structure of the ownership. In this week’s post we look at the four primary RIA ownership models and discuss how to find the best one for your RIA.
As you can imagine, a lot of prospective clients want to know what the RIA valuation process entails. They’re often taken aback when we tell them it typically takes six to eight weeks from start to finish, but that’s probably because they don’t realize what it all entails if they’ve never had one done. For this week’s post, we’ll channel our inner Nick Saban and focus on the typical valuation process for RIAs.
Goodwill is an intangible asset representing the value of a business beyond its tangible book value. Investment management businesses generally have plenty of value beyond their tangible book value. Therefore, they have lots of goodwill that can be attributed to factors like the firm’s client relationships, the recurring revenue model, brand recognition, or employee expertise. Goodwill and the distinction between personal and enterprise goodwill can have important economic consequences in RIA transactions and disputes. Learn more in this week’s post.
The wealth management industry experienced remarkable growth in 2024, driven by robust market performance, inflation cooling, and shifts in monetary policy. Contrary to earlier concerns of economic instability, the year delivered substantial growth across the RIA sector, signaling resilience and adaptability in an ever-changing financial landscape. As the wealth management industry looks to 2025 and beyond, the dual drivers of demographic change and technological innovation will play a pivotal role in shaping its future. Firms that effectively embrace these trends—by deepening client relationships and harnessing cutting-edge technology—stand to emerge as leaders in an increasingly dynamic and competitive market.
M&A activity in the RIA industry, which had been trailing 2023 levels for much of 2024, experienced a dramatic surge in October. This spike set a new record for monthly deal volume and brought year-to-date transaction figures through November in line with 2023’s pace. In this week’s post, we look at the convergence of factors driving a surge in M&A activity within the RIA industry and what that means for your RIA.
RIAs continued to outperform the S&P in Q4 2024, with alternative asset managers boasting an impressive 60% price gain year-over-year. In 2024, traditional investment managers saw the strongest AUM growth, while alternative managers proved better at converting this growth to revenue. We explore further in our Q4 2024 Market Update.
It has become a tradition for the RIA team at Mercer Capital to end the blog year with a “unique” annual summary of industry events, riffing off Clement Clark Moore’s classic “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” We hope all of you in the investment management community are enjoying the holiday season and looking forward to the many opportunities of the new year. We look forward to hearing from you in 2025. For now, please enjoy the finest only holiday poem written about money management.
A few months ago, our team attended a business appraisal conference in Portland, Oregon, where we learned about a case involving a “Difficult Partner Discount.” Since we’re often hired when business owners can’t agree on price, we’re well aware of partnership disputes, but are pretty confident we’ve never directly applied a “Difficult Partner Discount” to the value of a business or interest therein. That doesn’t mean that partner disputes and departures can’t significantly impair the value of a company, which we address in this post.
No two RIAs are identical but broadly speaking, firms that seek to serve the same types of clients tend to end up with similar-looking business models. A firm’s structure tends to reflect the types of clients the firm seeks to serve and the value proposition it offers to those clients. The result is that firms tend to cluster around a handful of distinct models, and identifying what those models are and how they differ can be a useful exercise both in analyzing a particular firm and in thinking about practice management issues.
