Hightower has taken a stake in Charles D. Hyman & Company, a registered investment advisor based in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., with $2.3 billion in client assets. This is Hightower’s second transaction this year.
The RIA was founded in the 1990s by Charles D. Hyman, president of the firm. It includes a five-person team and focuses on individuals, families, trusts, charitable interests and foundations.
“Joining Hightower will allow us to add additional operational, regulatory, and technological infrastructure as well as leverage an expanded set of new wealth solutions and services,” Hyman said in a statement.
Hightower’s services for firms include boosting organic and inorganic growth through business development consulting, marketing and tech support, as well as compliance, accounting, payroll and human resources services.
Chicago-based Hightower operates as an RIA and works with firms in 35 states and Washington, D.C., and has $156 billion in assets under management.
Jessica Polito, founder of Turkey Hill Management, advised Charles D. Hyman on the transaction.
The latest announcement follows news in January that Hightower acquired a stake in Capital Management Group of New York, a 38-person firm overseeing $3.3 billion from offices in New York City and Pearl River, N.Y. In 2023, the firm announced 12 deals.
Last month, a Massachusetts-based advisor filed suit against Hightower, accusing the firm of trying to push him out of his job because of his age. According to SEC records, Glenn Frank sued Hightower Holdings and Lexington Wealth Management, the firm he’s worked for since 2010. (Hightower acquired the firm in 2019 via a strategic investment.)
According to Frank’s complaint, over the past few years, Hightower “has continually ‘phased’” Frank out of working with his clients to benefit younger advisors in the firm. (Frank is 69 years old, according to the complaint.) Hightower declined to comment, citing that it doesn’t speak about pending litigation.
Hightower is owned by private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners; in May WealthManagement.com reported that the private equity firm took Hightower off the market because it didn’t get the price it was looking for from potential buyers, according to sources close to the firm and the investment bankers involved.
In April, Hightower named Gurinder Ahluwalia, the lead director of the firm’s board of directors, president, a newly created position. Ahluwalia is an executive partner in THL's financial technology and services vertical.
