M and A
Hightower's M&A Team Enables Another Deal
This is another case of the M&A group at the firm facilitating transactions in different parts of the US wealth management market.
Hightower last week said that its mergers and acquisitions team has facilitated another merger for Lexington Wealth Management, a Hightower advisory business in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Under the agreement, Freed Investment Group, a $264 million advisory business based in Boston, will join Lexington. It is the second merger for Lexington this year, following the addition of Marcus Financial Advisors, a $200 million firm based in Beverly, Massachusetts, which joined in January 2021.
The addition of Freed Investment Group will bring Lexington's total client assets to $1.9 billion.
Advisors Kenneth Freed and Dennis Encarnation specialize in financial planning, investment management and tax planning services for high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients.
As of September 30, 2021, Hightower's assets under administration (AUA) were about $132.2 billion, and its assets under management were $104.1 billion.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Hightower continues to make a number of stakes. In October, Hightower facilitated a sub-acquisition for Fairport Wealth, which added FMA Advisory of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Fairport's business of wealth management professionals. Hightower also took a stake in Landsberg Bennett Private Wealth Management, a $1 billion wealth management firm based in Punta Gorda, Florida.
In September Hightower took a stake in Arlington, Virginia-based Alexandria Capital, a $1.5 billion advisory business with offices in New York City, Boston, Portland, Oregon, and Juneau, Alaska. In June the firm won conditional regulatory approval to transform its Texas-based trust company into a nationally chartered trust company. In January this year Hightower made a strategic stake in New York-based Siller & Cohen Family Wealth Advisors, a $830 million wealth management firm in Rye Brook, New York. In late July it acquired Farr, Miller & Washington, a $2 billion (assets under management) wealth management firm based in Washington, DC with offices in Naples, Florida, and Devon, Pennsylvania.
