Five-person team breaks away from Wintrust to join HighTower
Group led by Grove Mower and managing $450 million creates Hummer Mower Associates.
Grove N. Mower, whose five-person team managed $450 million at Wintrust Wealth Management in Chicago, has created an RIA firm, Hummer Mower Associates, and affiliated with HighTower Advisors.
The team includes Philip W. Hummer, David D. Cox, Rebecca J. Parr, Ryan J. Ross and associate Chapin N. Mower. Mr. Hummer’s father founded Wayne Hummer & Co. in Chicago in 1931. The firm was acquired by Wintrust Financial Corp. in 2002.
Mr. Mower had been with Wayne Hummer Investments, the broker-dealer for Wintrust Wealth Management, since 1998. He started his securities career in 1982 at Mabon Nugent and had been with Dillon Read, William Blair & Co., The Chicago Corp. and Nesbitt Burns before joining Wayne Hummer.
Elliot Weissbluth, chief executive of Chicago-based HighTower, cited the company’s activity in four areas: wirehouse breakaways, registered investment advisers, acquisitions and as a service provider. “We are seeing growth in all four,” he said.
“Until a couple of years ago, we were predominately growing from the wirehouse channel, but a few years ago [we] tilted to RIA acquisitions and developing out the platform,” Mr. Weissbluth said. “We’re now committing significant resources to building out all four quadrants.”
(More: Private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners buys stake in HighTower)
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