Homrich Berg, an Atlanta-based RIA integrator with $18 billion in assets, has added a team of advisors in Tampa, Fla., previously managing over $4 billion in client assets. This follows news last month that the RIA would sell a minority stake in the firm to TPG, a San Francisco-headquartered private equity firm, at a $1 billion valuation.
“One of the reasons why they invested in it is because we’ve successfully been able to do things like this in the past and integrate acquisitions and advisor lift-outs into our firm in an integrated way,” Homrich Berg CEO Thomas Carroll said.
The addition gives Homrich Berg its second Florida office, following the addition of a $1.5 billion advisor team in Palm Beach, Fla., in 2021.
The team of 11 wealth management professionals is led by Larry Parkin, who is returning from a two-year retirement. Prior to that, Parkin was a managing director leading West Florida for Truist Private Wealth Management. Parkin joins HB Family Office as a principal and Florida Market leader. He will head the new Tampa office and be responsible for recruiting new talent in the Southeast.
“I came out of retirement because I was excited to take on a leadership role for a leading independent wealth management firm with a fiduciary, fee-only approach to putting families and their financial goals at the forefront of their work,” Parkin said in a statement.
He’s joined by principals Lex Smith, Ryan Best, Keith Johnson, Brad Glover and John Willoughby. Steve Cass will serve as a managing director, while Drew LaGrande has been appointed a managing director and family wealth strategist. Team members Benjamin DePalmo, Melissa Baron, Marjorie Sjostrom and Casey Jackman have also made the move.
“We continue to invest in capabilities and people that can attract more family-office-level clients, ultra-high-net-worth clients,” Carroll said. “And this group has had a track record of success working with some very wealthy families.”
This is also the first major wealth management team to join Homrich Berg since Carroll took over as CEO earlier this year. Founder Andy Berg stepped down as CEO after growing the advisory firm to $14 billion in assets over nearly three and a half decades.
Berg co-founded Homrich Berg in 1989 along with David Homrich—and a $100,000 loan from his father. Both with tax backgrounds, the duo managed less than $10 million for clients in the early years. By the time Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank, a client of theirs, persuaded Homrich to leave to help him build a family office in 2001, the pair had grown the firm to nearly $500 million in assets under management.
Today, the firm has established itself as a regional integrator, overseeing more than $18 billion in assets for more than 3,600 families nationwide.
Since becoming CEO, Carroll has built out the executive leadership team, adding Michael A. Woocher as chief advisory officer and Andrew Page as head of corporate development, both newly created positions. Last month, the firm hired Joanna Irwin as chief marketing officer. She replaced Bill Bolen, who returned to focusing on client service.
“Part of what I’ve been trying to do is really institutionalize the business—move it from a wonderful practice to more of an enterprise," Carroll said. "As we’ve grown and as we’ve scaled—with $18 billion in assets now—we need functional leaders.”
