HighTower has lured advisers for months

In the months before it landed one of the biggest advisers on Wall Street, HighTower Securities LLC was already successfully recruiting other breakaway brokers. This month, the independent -broker-dealer and its registered investment adviser affiliate, HighTower Advisors LLC, recruited Richard Saperstein to join the firm as a partner (InvestmentNews, May 4). With a $10 billion book of business, mostly in bonds and cash management, he is one of the elite brokers on Wall Street, and landing him was a coup for the Chicago-based startup. Thereafter, HighTower in a statement listed other prominent advisers it had recruited since the end of last year. It was the first time that the firm, which is bankrolled in part by former Wall Street chieftains Philip Purcell and David Pottruck, released the names and backgrounds of those advisers. Like Mr. Saperstein, the advisers in that group come from Wall Street investment firms that were decimated in the aftermath of the subprime and credit crises. For example, one of HighTower's new advisers worked for New York-based Lehman Brother Holdings Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection in September, and one is from Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. of New York, which was acquired by Bank of America Corp. of Charlotte, N.C., this year. “The story is still resonating with big producers,” said Danny Sarch, a recruiter in White Plains, N.Y., who counts HighTower as a client. The firm has set aside 25% of its equity for advisers, and the potential to own a piece of the firm is proving alluring for some, said Mr. Sarch, who hasn't yet recruited brokers to HighTower. The firm opened last year, and the timing couldn't have been better. Many brokers are angry at their firms, particularly as much of their net worth was tied to company stock whose value has evaporated, Mr. Sarch said. Nick Bapis and Todd Lyon joined HighTower in November from Morgan Stanley of New York. Mr. Bapis is based in Salt Lake City, and Mr. Lyon is based in San Francisco. In December, HighTower recruited former Merrill Lynch broker David Wisehaupt for its Palm Beach, Fla., office, as well as Tim Scannell, an independent adviser based in Valparaiso, Ind. In February, Blair Anderson, who is based in Traverse City, Mich., left UBS Financial Services Inc. of New York, and Larry Gilbert, who is based in Chicago, left The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., also of New York, to join. HighTower didn't include the assets under management or gross-production numbers for the brokers in its statement. According to published reports, Mr. Bapis manages $1.3 billion. E-mail Bruce Kelly at [email protected].