By Andrew Welsch

Homrich Berg, a fast-growing wealth management firm, will buy WMS Partners, a $6.4 billion multifamily office and registered investment advisor in Towson, Md.

The acquisition is the largest Homrich Berg has made since its founding in 1989. The firm currently manages more than $18 billion for clients and is ranked No. 27 on Barron's Top 100 RIA Firms for 2024.

The firm didn't disclose terms of the deal, which it expects to close early in the first quarter of 2025. All WMS shareholders will become shareholders in Homrich Berg, says Homrich Berg CEO Thomas Carroll.

The acquisition will expand Atlanta-based Homrich Berg's capabilities for serving wealthier clients, says Carroll. "In the case of WMS, they have expertise in family office services," he says. "They have deep expertise in estate planning in particular. And they have experience in investing in private markets."

He says Homrich Berg was also drawn to WMS because of a shared approach to the business, noting that both firms are fee-only and act as fiduciaries on behalf of clients. "The number of firms that have that approach is smaller than the total population [of RIAs], so when we find a firm that shares that approach and our values and is in a geography we want to be in, that's pretty exciting," he says.

WMS was founded in 1993 by Tim Chase, David Citron, and Martin Eby. It has more than 80 employees and partners and provides wealth management and family office solutions for high-net-worth and ultrahigh-net-worth individuals and families.

Eby says that his firm was drawn to Homrich Berg as a way to expand its resources and continue to serve multiple generations of clients. "By joining HB, we will fulfill that promise and benefit from a platform and leadership team that shares our unwavering commitment to always putting clients first."

In recent years, Homrich Berg has been steadily expanding its footprint beyond its home state of Georgia to states such as Florida and Tennessee. It currently has 10 offices in five states. In September, it sold a minority stake to a unit of private-equity firm TPG. Homrich Berg has grown organically as well as through acquisitions and recruiting. For instance, in October it hired a former Truist advisor team that oversaw $4 billion in assets to staff an office in Tampa, Fla. It also hired former wealth management executive Larry Parkin to serve as its Florida market leader and spearhead growth in the state.

"It's been a busy year," Caroll says. "We had the strategic minority investment. We opened an office in Tampa. This is the biggest acquisition in the history of our firm. So we will be methodical in the integration. It will probably play out through the entirety of 2025. But we won't stop. We will continue to work and find opportunities for our franchise. We want to be the premier fee-only firm in the Southeast."

Write to Andrew Welsch at andrew.welsch@barrons.com

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December 11, 2024 09:00 ET (14:00 GMT)

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