Avantax Wealth Management, the broker/dealer formed this fall through the combination of HD Vest and 1st Global, said it expects to give out $5.5 million in equity grants to the firm’s top advisors in 2020, twice the amount given this year. The firm has 4,100 financial advisors focused primarily on tax planning overseeing more than $67 billion in client assets.
The firm will also increase the number of grants that advisors receive in an effort to broaden participation. They’ll be based on advisors’ 2020 performance and will be awarded in the first quarter of 2021.
Blucora, a publicly traded internet company with a $1.2 billion market cap, recognized the value of tax planning and wealth management when it acquired HD Vest, an independent broker/dealer serving tax-focused advisors, for $580 million in 2015, a premium price at the time. The firm put another stake in the ground with the purchase of 1st Global, an IBD with a focus on larger CPA practices.
The company recently announced plans to combine the IBDs and rebrand them under the Avantax name. Enrique Vasquez, the former head of Cetera’s tax-focused b/d, was tapped to lead the firm.