RIA Recruiter, Dealmaker Kreuter Rolls Up Divisions Into Gladstone GroupRIA Recruiter, Dealmaker Kreuter Rolls Up Divisions Into Gladstone Group
Recruitment shop D.A. Kreuter Associates and its Gladstone M&A, valuation and consulting divisions will now be the collective Gladstone Group.
A mergers and acquisitions and recruiting firm focused on advisors is combining its recruiting, valuation and M&A divisions under one brand, Gladstone Group, as it plans to more than double its published transactions in 2025 year over year.
The newly formed company has folded in its founding firm, D.A. Kreuter Associates, a headhunter founded by Dan Kreuter in 2014. DAK had originally financed Gladstone’s RIA consultancy and M&A work, but after Kreuter and his team saw the division thrive in a booming market for RIA consolidation, they made it the umbrella brand.
“Under the heading ‘the child is the father to the man,’ Gladstone took off like a rocket, particularly in the past four years, and we decided to do the equivalent of a reverse merger and subsume DAK into Gladstone,” Kreuter said.
In 2024, the Plymouth Meeting, Pa.-based Gladstone’s M&A arm oversaw 10 strategic acquisitions representing more than $6 billion in assets under management. In 2025, Kreuter expects to at least double the amount of booked transactions on three factors “that make the RIA convergence a secular trend and not a fad.”
In summary, those drivers are the aging out of RIA founders and owners, the need for advisors to provide holistic financial services to compete in the marketplace, and private equity funding that has “fallen in love with the ROI of what is a predictable revenue business with ongoing client demand and a ‘clean,’ discretionary advice model.”
Gladstone’s integration is intended to “eliminate the need for firms to juggle multiple advisors” when working across business areas. This week, it launched a new website with Gladstone M&A, Gladstone Talent Search, Gladstone Valuation and Gladstone Strategic Growth Consulting.
Regarding advisor recruiting, Kreuter cited a recent McKinsey survey forecasting a shortage of 100,000 financial advisors by 2034.
“There is a quest for talent in multiple functional areas in the wealth management space,” he said. “One of the hidden levers in acquiring RIAs is the acquisition of talent, above and beyond the acquisition of AUM, revenue and EBITDA.”
Firm valuations also remain strong, according to Kreuter. Three of the biggest drivers for in-demand firms are those that have proven year-over-year net new asset growth, client demographics that “skew to accumulation, not draw-down,” and healthy and sustainable margins.
Meanwhile, of the “hundreds of firms” Gladstone speaks with every year, Kreuter said less than half don’t have a “real succession plan.”
“I would point out that just because as an owner/founder or partner in a larger firm, having a trusted NextGen person or team, even if they are your son or daughter—it's not a real succession plan if it's not papered and funded,” he said. “Selling to succeed as in succession is a big driver in many of the transactions we manage.”
Gladstone released its own M&A prognosticator last year, which noted that 97% of buyers are interested in firms with assets between $1 billion and $500 million. The firm will release its second annual findings at a conference in Philadelphia in April.
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