Clearstead acquires $5B wealth firm

RIA Clearstead Advisors is boosting its status among top wealth managers as it secures the assets of Virginia-based Wilbanks Smith and Thomas Asset Management.

Following the merger – signed in February and announced Monday – the unified organization will represent approximately $44 billion in total assets under advisement, including $20 billion in assets under management. The company's workforce will increase to 225, spread across nine cities.

To seamlessly integrate operations, Wilbanks Smith and Thomas will be rebranded as Clearstead Advisory Solutions, a division of Clearstead Advisors. It will continue its operations from its offices in Norfolk and Roanoke, Virginia, and Raleigh, North Carolina. Additionally, all six partners from the acquired firm will become shareholders in Clearstead, raising the total number of employee-owners to 65.

Established in 1990 by Wayne Wilbanks, who has 33 years of experience, the firm with more than $5 billion in AUM has been recognized for its tailored financial advisory services to a wide range of clients, including families, institutions, and financial service firms nationwide.

"We are philosophically similar to Clearstead in our client approach and a strong complement geographically, given our presence in the mid-Atlantic and Southern states,” Wilbanks said in a statement.

“Most importantly, our clients will benefit from Clearstead's family office planning capabilities, alternative investments platform, in-house research, and wealth management capabilities," he added.

Clearstead Advisors, which is based, was founded in 1989. It caters to a diverse clientele of nearly 1,200 individual and family clients with integrated tax, planning, and family office services alongside investment management. The firm also works with over 245 endowments, foundations, retirement plans, and hospitals.

Clearstead's deal for the Virginia-based firm represents the latest step in its strategic expansion, following a significant equity investment from Flexpoint Ford in 2022.

Since then, Clearstead has pursued growth through organic developments and acquisitions, including Burkhart & Co., Snow Financial Advisors, Avalon Trust, CLS Consulting, and an eight-advisor team from a prominent financial services firm in Hudson, Ohio.

"Strategic and prudent mergers make us a stronger firm – each brings talent and capabilities to serve clients more effectively, which is our primary focus,” said David Fulton, Clearstead's CEO.

“This is the impetus for our combination with Wilbanks Smith and Thomas Asset Management, for which we have the highest hopes," Fulton said.

Clearstead’s acquisition of Wilbanks Smith and Thomas comes on the heels of its partnership with Smartleaf Asset Management, an RIA subsidiary of Smartleaf, to provide its clients with tax-efficient investment strategies, portfolio rebalancing, and values-based investing, among other sub-advisory services.