Hightower, the Chicago-based RIA aggregator, said Tuesday it’s made a strategic investment in Osborn Williams & Donohoe, a Cincinnati-based firm with $1.4 billion in AUM. It’s another example that wealth management deals are getting done despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hightower does not disclose deal terms or sizes but said it took a “significant” equity stake in Osborn Williams & Donohoe and paid a mix of cash and equity.
Founded in 2012, Osborn Williams & Donohoe employs 15 people, including five financial advisors. Individual clients include family business owners and corporate executives, and it also serves private endowments and foundations.
This is Hightower’s second transaction this year, and it now has 107 advisory businesses in 34 states. Early last month, it announced an investment in Wellspring Associates, a boutique wealth planning and consulting firm with offices in Atlanta and Dallas.
At the end of last year, Hightower’s AUM totaled $57.4 billion.
Other wealth management firms are making deals too. For example, LPL Financial recently announced it was buying Lucia Securities, a San Diego-based broker-dealer and RIA with about 20 advisors and $1.5 billion in AUM.
Still, the RIA M&A landscape is changing, my colleague Steve Garmhausen reported this week. Buyers likely will focus on firms that can bring in new clients even in down markets, and sellers may see much lower bids.
