A Virginia-based $1.5 billion advisory firm is getting a “strategic investment” from Hightower, the company’s second such investment in recent weeks.
In addition to its headquarters in Arlington, Va., Alexandria Capital has offices in New York City, Boston, Portland, Ore., and in Juneau, Alaska. The firm is headed by CEO Augustine Hong and CIO Jonathan Ferguson and was founded in 1987; it grew from $108 million in managed assets in 2010 to its $1.5 billion AUM (due in part to a 2017 merger with FIC Capital).
With 21 employees in total, including 10 advisors, the firm works with “successful professionals,” as well as entrepreneurs, foundations, family offices and retirement plans. The new investment will be used to “leverage the firm’s middle-and-back-office and business development capabilities” in order to spur higher growth, according to Hightower. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Joining Hightower will magnify our ability to deliver the services that clients value most and give us a wide range of capabilities that would be difficult to put in place on our own,” Ferguson said in a statement about the deal.
Hightower’s services for firms include boosting firms’ organic and inorganic growth through business development consulting, marketing and tech support, as well as compliance, accounting, payroll and human resources services, among other attributes.
Hightower, which is based in Chicago, operates as a registered investment advisor and works with firms in 34 states and the District of Columbia and has $101 billion in assets under management. Hightower CEO and Chairman Bob Oros said it was exciting to welcome Alexandria into the fold to help them “further scale” their business.
“By joining Hightower and using our operational and growth acceleration resources, they will free up time to deepen their client relationships and attract new business,” he said.
Late last month, Hightower announced it would be making a strategic investment in Investment Security Group (ISG), a Denver-based wealth management firm with $800 in AUM. Though Oros noted Hightower was not driven by geography in the investment, he noted that ISG was attractive partly because it was located in a region where Hightower did not have as pronounced a presence.
In July, the firm purchased Farr, Miller & Washington, a D.C.-based RIA with about $2 billion in AUM and offices in Pennsylvania and Florida. Earlier this year, Hightower purchased Bel Air Investment Advisors, a Los Angeles–based RIA with $8 billion in managed assets. The deal was Hightower’s most sizable acquisition to date.