
Summary: There’s no doubt the advisory industry is consolidating, but it’s not a process of splashy acquisitions. Instead, many top firms are joining forces with like-minded smaller firms, and at times with each other, to form bigger organizations with larger market footprints. Big acquisitions with high valuations garner all the publicity, but a quiet current of mergers is powerfully transforming the industry, and such combinations may become one of the primary succession mechanisms for midsize firms.