Hightower's M&A Team Enables Another Deal

Editorial Staff

1 November 2021

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 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 wealth management firm based in Washington, DC with offices in Naples, Florida, and Devon, Pennsylvania.