MAI expands mid-Atlantic reach with $527M Lowe Wealth Advisors

MAI Capital Management is adding another Maryland firm to its growing RIA platform, acquiring Columbia-based Lowe Wealth Advisors in a deal that brings in $527 million in assets under management and 470 client households nationwide.

Lowe Wealth Advisors was founded in 1980 by Harold Lowe and has evolved into a family-led, planning-focused practice serving high-net-worth clients, including business owners, entertainers and trustees for foundations and endowments. The firm has also carved out a niche with medical and trauma care professionals, running educational programs on financial literacy, debt and estate planning for trauma fellows.

All nine employees of Lowe Wealth Advisors, including 23-year industry veteran Harold Lowe and his son, Gregory Lowe, will join MAI.

The father-and-son team will become senior managing directors at the Cleveland-based RIA, a move the firms say is meant to preserve continuity for existing clients even as Lowe Wealth folds into a national organization.

In a Monday statement announcing the deal, MAI chair and chief executive Rick Buoncore framed the acquisition as part of a broader push in the Baltimore area.

He said the Lowe Wealth team has built “a relationship-driven firm” that aligns with MAI’s emphasis on personalized and comprehensive advice. MAI has been targeting “meaningful scale” in select markets where its advisors can have a larger presence, he said in the release.

The acquisition gives Lowe Wealth access to MAI’s national infrastructure in areas such as human resources, operations, technology and marketing, along with a bench of more than 150 specialists in investment, planning, tax, estate and family office services.

Gregory Lowe said in the statement that the deal lets the team keep the personal service and relationships their clients expect while tapping “deeper investment and planning resources,” including advanced estate strategies, broader alternatives access and additional support for complex situations.

The Lowe Wealth transaction continues a busy acquisition run for MAI in the Mid-Atlantic. Last month, the firm said it was buying Ellicott City, Maryland-based Court Place Advisors, adding $366 million in assets and further building out its presence in the region.

Around the same time, MAI closed a sizeable deal to merge with Los Angeles-based Evoke Advisors, pushing its total assets under management to more than $65 billion across what is now a national network of offices. That deal, which was first unveiled in August, represents a trend of "merger of equal" transactions that could potentially picking up steam as smaller deals start to make less mathematical sense for some of the larger acquirers.

“I always say if you have a $500 million RIA, if you go and transact with a $40 or $50 billion RIA, what impact did you make on that business?" Modern Wealth Management president Jason Gordo told InvestmentNews in a previous interview. "It's equivalent to throwing a bucket of water in the Pacific Ocean. It just doesn't matter.”