As another week rolls by, the US wealth management group chalks up its seventh strategic investment, suggesting that something of a land-grab race is under way in the North American sector. It also points to how the pandemic hasn't noticeably reduced M&A this year - and may have even increased some transactions.

Hightower has added yet another strategic wealth management stake to its collection this year, making an investment in Argent Wealth Management, a business based in Waltham, Massachusetts. The firm oversees $1.7 billion in assets.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2020, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

As far as this publication can determine, Argent Wealth Management is unrelated to Argent Financial Group, the Rushton, Louisiana-based organization that provides wealth management and other services across the southern states of the US. 

The latest transaction, announced yesterday, is Hightower's seventh in 2020. When the new deal is taken into account, Hightower will have 112 advisory businesses in 33 states. Founded in 1992, Argent has 22 employees, including 11 advisors, who serve high net worth individuals and families in the greater Boston area.

Hightower is busy: earlier this week it made another ”strategic investment” in Stearns Financial Group, a $1.3 billion wealth management firm based in North Carolina. That deal, in turn, followed Hightower’s investment in Private Vista, the Illinois-based wealth management business, and in a business in the Dallas area.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have hampered some deal-making – such as undertaking due diligence requirements that are difficult to accomplish remotely – but as figures have shown, transactions continue. (See recent data from ECHELON Partners, the advisory firm specialising in wealth sector M&A.) And this news service recently spoke to EY and Dynasty Financial Partners about some of the thinking behind corporate M&A in the wealth space. 

Staying individual
“Partnering with Hightower will enable us to keep our individuality as a practice while freeing up time and energy for us to do more of what we love most: Help our clients solve problems and grow their wealth,” David Duchesneau, Argent’s founder and CEO, said. 

As of June 30, 2020, Hightower's assets under administration (AUA) were approximately $75.7 billion and its assets under management were $56.7 billion. The company grew by 9.6 per cent organically in 2019, up from 8 per cent in 2018.