Atlanta-based Homrich Berg is buying WMS Companions, a $6.4 billion multi-family workplace and RIA in Maryland. It will increase the agency’s whole belongings below administration above $24 billion.
The Tyson, Md.-based WMS Companions will change into a part of the Homrich Berg Household Workplace. WMS was based in 1993 by Tim Chase, David Citron and Martin Eby and at the moment staffs over 80 workers and companions providing a variety of wealth administration and household workplace providers for shoppers within the high-net-worth to ultra-high-net-worth vary.
In accordance with Homrich Berg President and CEO Thomas Carroll, the 2 companies share a “distinctive method to advance planning and personal market investing,” and the addition of WMS Companions will assist Homrich Berg on its aim to change into “the premier impartial fee-only RIA within the Southeast-plus area.”
WMS Companions already loved a multi-year relationship with Homrich Berg, in line with WMS CEO Todd Wickwire, and the acquisition will imply WMS’s 21 shareholders will change into homeowners in Homrich Berg, bringing that agency’s whole depend to over 70 shareholders. On account of the deal, Homrich Berg’s footprint will broaden to 10 places of work in 5 states with over 300 workers.
In September, Homrich Berg executives opted to promote a minority stake within the agency to TPG Development, the center market and progress fairness platform of the San Francisco-based non-public fairness agency TPG. In accordance with Reuters, the deal valued the RIA at round $1 billion.
The agency has additionally been backed by New Mountain Strategic Fairness, an affiliate of the non-public fairness agency New Mountain Capital, which made its minority funding in 2021. New Mountain saved its stake within the wake of the TPG deal. In 2022, Homrich Berg accomplished a debt capital revolver by elevating $75 million in a multi-bank syndication led by First Residents Financial institution, permitting the agency’s homeowners to retain their majority management.
Carroll took over the position of Homrich Berg CEO initially of this 12 months. He succeeded Andy Berg, who’d led the agency since its founding. The transfer was a part of a deliberate transition that started when Carroll was employed in 2020, and Berg remained as chairman of the agency’s board.
In April, Homrich employed Andrew Web page to go the agency’s M&A exercise. Web page beforehand labored on direct investments and sub-acquisitions at Focus Monetary for 5 years earlier than transferring to Ancora Holdings, a Focus companion agency, in 2022, the place he oversaw the agency’s M&A. The WMS deal is the primary acquisition below Web page’s tenure.
Homrich Berg additionally employed Michael Woocher, who had spent 9 years at Bernstein Personal Wealth Administration, because the newly created chief advisory officer. In September, the agency employed Joanna Irwin as chief advertising officer. She changed Invoice Bolen, who returned to specializing in consumer service. Final month, the agency added a $4 billion Tampa, Fla. group becoming a member of from Truist, changing into Homrich Berg’s second workplace within the Sunshine State.
Berg co-founded the agency in 1989 with David Homrich, with the assistance of a $100,000 mortgage from Homrich’s father. The duo managed lower than $10 million for the agency’s first decade.
Nonetheless, by the point House Depot co-founder Arthur Clean lured Homrich to assist him construct a household workplace in 2001, the agency managed about $500 million in consumer belongings. Now, the agency acts as a regional integrator, working with greater than 3,600 households nationwide.
The WMS deal is anticipated to shut early in 2025’s first quarter.
