Wealth management firm Hightower has acquired Highland, a registered investment advisor focused on high-net-worth individuals in the Pacific Northwest.

Chicago-based Hightower offers financial planning services to individuals. It also provides 401(k) consulting and cash management services to institutions.

Business is going well for Hightower: the value of the firm’s assets under management exceeds $100 billion and it recorded rapid organic growth last year. 

Acquisitions are a major contributor to Hightower’s growth. The firm has been buying fellow investment management providers by the bushels, with the newly announced purchase of Highland representing its fifth acquisition this year.

Highland works with executives, business owners and other high-net-worth individuals. Its 18-strong staff manages more than $1 billion in assets for clients.

Selling to a larger industry player is a major career milestone for the founders of a wealth managment firm. It’s also often also a win for the firm itself, which gains access to the resources of its new parent company.

Becoming part of a larger wealth management firm unlocks better economies of scale. Those economies of scale can take many forms, like access to lower prices when buying expensive financial forecasting software.

Becoming part of Highland could also enable Hightower to speed up its revenue growth. 

Highland has a strategy of assisting the firms that it acquires in areas such as marketing and recruitment. It can even help a wealth management firm acquire a competitor to grow its roster of clients.

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