Clearstead acquires $5B wealth firm
RIA Clearstead Advisors is boosting its status among top wealth managers as it secures the assets of Virginia-based Wilbanks Smith and Thomas Asset Management.
Following the merger – signed in February and announced Monday – the unified organization will represent approximately $44 billion in total assets under advisement, including $20 billion in assets under management. The company’s workforce will increase to 225, spread across nine cities.
To seamlessly integrate operations, Wilbanks Smith and Thomas will be rebranded as Clearstead Advisory Solutions, a division of Clearstead Advisors. It will continue its operations from its offices in Norfolk and Roanoke, Virginia, and Raleigh, North Carolina. Additionally, all six partners from the acquired firm will become shareholders in Clearstead, raising the total number of employee-owners to 65.
Established in 1990 by Wayne Wilbanks, who has 33 years of experience, the firm with more than $5 billion in AUM has been recognized for its tailored financial advisory services to a wide range of clients, including families, institutions, and financial service firms nationwide.
“We are philosophically similar to Clearstead in our client approach and a strong complement geographically, given our presence in the mid-Atlantic and Southern states,” Wilbanks said in a statement.
“Most importantly, our clients will benefit from Clearstead’s family office planning capabilities, alternative investments platform, in-house research, and wealth management capabilities,” he added.
Clearstead Advisors, which is based, was founded in 1989. It caters to a diverse clientele of nearly 1,200 individual and family clients with integrated tax, planning, and family office services alongside investment
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