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Investment Banker·RIA Rollups

Cameron Hoerner

Managing Director, Asset & Wealth Management Investment Banking at Piper Sandler

New York, NY

CH
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Why they matter

A decade-plus RIA/asset-management M&A banker at Piper Sandler who is actively advising on live nine-figure RIA capital raises and shaping how the market reads 2026 deal flow.

Background

Cameron Hoerner is a Managing Director in the Financial Services investment banking group at Piper Sandler, where he has spent more than a decade advising wealth management, asset management, and related financial-services companies on M&A, capital raises, and strategic advisory engagements. He joined Piper Sandler via its 2013 acquisition of Sandler O'Neill + Partners, having started his career as an investment banking analyst at KippsDeSanto & Co.; he holds a bachelor's degree in international economics from Georgetown University (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa).

Notable deals

  • 2025
    Piper Sandler served as exclusive financial advisor to Steward Partners Global Advisory (a ~$50B RIA platform) on its $475 million strategic capital raise from Ares Credit funds; Hoerner, as a senior banker on Piper Sandler's asset & wealth management team, discussed the deal publicly as evidence of PE investors increasingly joining existing RIA capital tables
  • 2026
    Quoted as a lead Piper Sandler voice explaining why the RIA M&A market kept setting records through 2025 despite tariff/geopolitical volatility, citing Piper Sandler's proprietary deal-count data (51 deals through Feb. 2026 vs. 60 in all of 2025) and buyer long-term investment logic

Call-prep brief

Background

  • MD in Piper Sandler's Financial Services group, NY-based; joined via the 2013 Sandler O'Neill acquisition; prior analyst stint at KippsDeSanto & Co.
  • Georgetown-educated (international economics, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa); over a decade focused specifically on wealth/asset management sector M&A and capital raises.

Current focus

  • Active on RIA sector capital-raise and M&A mandates — publicly discussed Piper Sandler's exclusive advisory role on Steward Partners' $475M Ares-led capital raise (Dec 2025).
  • Regularly quoted (early 2026) on RIA deal-volume trends, PE re-investment patterns, and how market volatility affects seller timing.

What they care about

  • Non-overlapping, differentiated RIA investments for repeat PE sponsors (client type, geography, growth approach).
  • Organic growth, fee resilience, and client retention as the underlying economics driving RIA valuations.
  • Long-horizon partnership framing over short-term multiple arbitrage when advising sellers/buyers.

Recent moves

  • Publicly tied to the Steward Partners/Ares deal commentary (Jan 2026) and a broader RIA M&A market outlook piece (2026) citing Piper Sandler's internal deal-count data.

Potential sensitivities

  • As an active sell-side/buy-side advisor, he cannot discuss specific client mandates or pipeline deals not yet public — frame questions around market structure and precedent, not live processes.
  • Piper Sandler competes for RIA aggregator mandates broadly, so he may be guarded about naming preferred buyers if it looks like a referral ask.

Questions to ask

  1. What differentiates a second or third RIA investment that a PE sponsor will actually pursue vs. pass on, in his experience running these processes?
  2. How is he seeing new capital providers (e.g., credit-oriented sponsors like Ares) price non-controlling minority stakes in RIA platforms versus traditional PE control deals?
  3. Given the Piper Sandler data showing 2026 deal count trailing 2025's pace, does he see that as a supply constraint, a pricing standoff, or early-stage market digestion?

Outreach draft

Subject
RIA capital markets — quick call?
Hi Cameron, I've been following your commentary on the RIA capital-raise market, including Piper Sandler's work on the Steward Partners/Ares transaction and your recent take on 2026 deal volume. We're evaluating opportunities in the RIA aggregation space and would value your perspective on how PE sponsors are structuring second and third RIA investments right now, and where you see valuation and deal-structure trends heading over the next 12-18 months. Would you have 20-30 minutes in the next couple of weeks for a call? Happy to work around your schedule. Best, [Your Name]

Linked companies

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