HighTower adds $400 million RIA to partnership

HighTower Advisors has picked up a $400 million registered investment adviser as the firm doubles down on recruitment and begins deploying funds from a $100 million credit line it secured this month. The firm deployed some of its recent capital infusion to recruit advisers Larry “Lars” Knudsen and Dan Stober, owners of Triad Wealth Stewardship. Triad Wealth, which the duo founded in 2007, had around $306 million in assets under management, according to a March filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. HighTower's head of development, Michael Parker, said that the discrepancy was due to the fact that the ADV was four months out of date. “They're a growing firm,” he said. The Triad team, which will now operate as W-2 employees of HighTower, are the 43rd team to join the partnership. Partners receive an upfront bonus in addition to an equity stake in HighTower in exchange for contributing a share of revenue. They are one of three hires to the partnership so far this year as HighTower focuses more on recruiting into the franchisee channel, the HighTower Network and the fee-for-service alliance offering. “We're going to continue to grow the partnership, but probably at a reduced rate,” Mr. Parker said. Mr. Parker said that in this case, it made sense to hire into the partnership because Mr. Knudsen and Mr. Stober were interested in receiving an equity stake in HighTower. “They were attracted to the building process,” Mr. Parker said. “They're providing their own intellectual capital to building the company strategically and they're attracted to being an equity owner of HighTower rather than an owner of their independent practice.” He noted that the hire comes as the firm beefs up recruiting in other channels and plans to use additional funds from the $100 million loan to bring on new teams. HighTower also recently brought on Kimberly Hollenbeck from Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network to help recruit in the western region. Overall, the firm has around $15 billion in assets in its partnership, according to an SEC filing from earlier this year.