MAI Capital continues growth spree with Constellation Sports Council

Serial RIA acquirer MAI Capital Management has expanded its sports and entertainment wealth management division with the additions of Jon Hayes and Tim Hightower from the Cincinnati-based Constellation Sports Council.

The Constellation Sports Council duo carry $280 million in assets under management that’s expected to transition to MAI Capital Management. CSC’s president and co-founder Hayes joins MAI as a senior wealth advisor, managing director. Hightower is now a wealth specialist and senior associate at MAI.

 “We've been traded from the White Sox to the Dodgers,” Hayes told InvestmentNews. “Athlete clients are looking at us to come to them for ideas—I just got this signing bonus or signed this big endorsement contract—what do you think I should do with that? I now have a full array of really good options that I can present to those clients, more than I ever have in my career.”

Athletes represented by CSC include NBA Hall of Famer Ray Allen and MLB Hall of Famer Barry Larkin as well as former NBA player David West and ex-MLB player Jamey Carroll. Cleveland-headquartered MAI has 31 offices across the U.S. and $29 billion in AUM, including $3.7 billion in its sports unit. Over the past year, MAI has acquired over a dozen firms including Concentric Wealth Management, Garrison Asset Management, Hyperion Partners, Carmichael Hill & Associates, Halpern Financial and LWS Wealth Advisors.

“With our growth mindset and our desire to find the right people to continue to grow our business, I have not been part of one conversation across our team at MAI where the backdrop has been brought up as a reason we should not consider finding the right partnerships,” said MAI’s regional president & market leader Ed Kuresman, dismissing the impact any recent economic uncertainty has on the firm’s M&A approach.

MAI traces its origins to being part of IMG’s sports entertainment business. The firm now has athlete clients across 13 professional sports leagues and represents more than 100 first-round picks. Its services beyond investment management include estate planning, family governance and education, and philanthropy.

“I already have an active client who is engaging with MAI to do his tax work for him,” said Hayes. “That's something that none of the firms I was with did before. You got to file in all these different states that you play in, and the municipalities, finding the deductions available. MAI has a team of people that do that very well.”

Hayes added that he expects his transition to MAI to create further opportunities to serve college athletes amid their growing wealth related to name, image and likeness deals. CSC’s presence in Cincinnati was seen as an attractive market for MAI’s athlete services. 

“MAI started with athletes as our core client base, and that business has been around for over 50 years so we have a long history of developing capabilities and resources specifically towards that client niche of athletes,” said Kuresman. “We have a few offices around the country that have larger concentrations of athletes as people they serve. In Cincinnati, this is an opportunity for us to build a concentration of serving athletes out of this office.”