# Succession and M&A guides

As of Oct 5, 2026, AdvisorIQ publishes 5 plain-language succession and M&A guides that cite 29 public sources, from SEC and IRS rules to industry deal studies.

As of: 2026-10-05
Address: https://advisoriq.com/succession/guides/

## Facts

- guides: title: Asset sale or equity sale: how practice deals are structured, summary: What a buyer actually buys, why client consent comes up, the registration filings, and how the tax allocation works., lead: As of Oct 5, 2026, Succession Resource Group calls the asset sale the most common structure in advisory practice sales, and FP Transitions reports that goodwill averages 92% of the purchase price in the deals it describes., url: https://advisoriq.com/succession/guides/asset-sale-vs-equity-sale/; title: Down payments, seller notes and earnouts: how the price gets paid, summary: Why the headline price is rarely the cash at closing, and how down payments, seller notes, earnouts and buyer equity work., lead: As of Oct 5, 2026, Succession Resource Group reports that buyers paid an average of 68% of the price in cash at closing in the 2025 deals it tracked, up from 63% in 2023., url: https://advisoriq.com/succession/guides/how-the-price-gets-paid/; title: Minority stakes and outside capital, summary: How a minority investment differs from a sale, how common these deals are, and why control is about more than a percentage., lead: As of Oct 5, 2026, minority transactions made up 15% of RIA deal activity in the first quarter of 2026, 14 deals, according to DeVoe & Company data reported by InvestmentNews., url: https://advisoriq.com/succession/guides/minority-stakes/; title: How long a sale or succession takes, summary: Years to prepare, months to sell, and a year or more of payments and transition after closing., lead: As of Oct 5, 2026, Succession Resource Group says a practice sale typically takes 6 to 12 months from first engagement to closing, and it reported an average of 129 days from listing to funding for 2024 deals., url: https://advisoriq.com/succession/guides/how-long-a-sale-takes/; title: What buyers look at, summary: Revenue quality, growth, clients, team and records: the factors that move a practice up or down a published range., lead: As of Oct 5, 2026, Succession Resource Group puts the typical multiple of recurring revenue for RIAs and advisors at 1.6x to 4.4x, and buyers decide where in that range a practice falls from its revenue, growth, clients and team., url: https://advisoriq.com/succession/guides/what-buyers-look-at/

## Notes

- Educational, not legal, tax or investment advice.
- Practice management content is not eligible for CFP Board CE. CFP Board plans to allow up to five hours of it per cycle once its Q4 2027 changes take effect.

## Related

- [Succession and M&A](https://advisoriq.com/succession/)
- [Valuation estimator](https://advisoriq.com/succession/valuation/)
- [RIA deal tracker](https://advisoriq.com/succession/deals/)

## Cite as

AdvisorIQ, as of 2026-10-05. https://advisoriq.com/succession/guides/

License: https://advisoriq.com/license/