In its continuing drive to welcome breakaway wirehouse brokers to its ranks, Chicago-based RIA firm HighTower announced its 15th partnership Monday, August 2, this time with Morse, Towey & White, a five-member, $1 billion wealth management team from UBS.
Andrew Morse, Justin Towey, and Bob White will all serve as managing directors at HighTower. In addition to the three principals, two senior members of their team, Pamela Tang and Maja Janko, also are making the move to HighTower.
"The old models that used to dominate financial services are changing, and they are changing to favor an independent financial advisor," said HighTower CEO Elliot Weissbluth in a phone interview. "With the shift in the availability of technology, and the shift in the availability of financial products, an independent financial advisor can do a better job for their clients out in the independent world than they could inside of a captive traditional brokerage firm."
In its three years of operation, HighTower has expanded from zero to about 100 employees, 15 teams, and 30 managing director-financial advisors, Weissbluth noted.
In late July, HighTower announced its 14th partnership with the acquisition of Three Bridge Wealth Advisors, an advisory firm based in Menlo Park, California, with $740 million in assets derived largely from the venture capital and private equity communities in and around Silicon Valley.
