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Irvine, California-based WealthWise Financial Services has acquired a Houston-based financial practice.<\/p>\n
The firm acquired the $35 million financial practice from certified financial planner Thomas Higgins. . The deal will bring WealthWise\u2019s total brokerage and advisory assets served to over $300 million through registered investment advisor LPL Financial (Nasdaq: LPLA) and adds a third office to the firm, adding to its locations in Southern California and Dallas.<\/p>\n
The deal was facilitated by LPL Financial (Nasdaq: LPLA), an independent broker-dealer network which both WealthWise and Thomas Huggins are part of. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.<\/p>\n
Higgins manages his $35 million in assets by himself and has clients located throughout Texas, as well as some outside of the state. Huggins has been running his practice for 25 years. At 73 years old and approaching retirement, he said it was time for him to merge with a partner to help run the back-office functions of the practice and eventually take over as lead adviser to his clients.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was time for me to start looking at who’s going to take my clients on the next lap,\u201d Higgins told the Houston Business Journal. \u201cOftentimes over my 25 years, (my clients) asked, \u2018What happens if you get hit by a bus?\u2019 I\u2019ve danced and dogged (the question), but now I finally have the person that\u2019s going to be there when I get hit by a bus.\u201d<\/p>\n
The deal won\u2019t have a major impact on Higgins\u2019 clients other than a change in the logo on their statements, he said. Both firms have a similar philosophy for managing clients\u2019 assets \u2014 one of the factors that made the deal attractive \u2014 so Higgins\u2019 clients will fit right in with WealthWise, he said. Additionally, those clients will have access to expanded services with the new firm.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, WealthWise has four employees and works with business owners and executives with a focus on female clients and investors. The firm has clients in 26 states nationwide, including in Texas, so the deal made sense for the company to expand its reach in the Lone Star State, said founder and CEO Loreen Gilbert. The deal is the company\u2019s first external acquisition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a desire of mine to have a greater impact with more clients and expand in areas where we already have a presence,\u201d Gilbert told HBJ.<\/p>\n
Texas\u2019 booming economy and favorable business environment is attractive for WealthWise and Gilbert, who is a native Texan herself and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. Expanding into Houston allows the firm to break into the oil and gas space, which Gilbert said she has been planning to do for some time now. Now that the deal is closed, the firm plans to continue expanding its statewide presence and adding clients in other parts of the state, such as Austin and Corpus Christi, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to be where clients are going to want to be for the kind of clients that we are looking for,\u201d Gilbert said.<\/p>\n
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By Chandler France \u2013 Reporter, Houston Business Journal<\/p>\n