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HB Wealth enters Texas through a $700 million RIA that advises healthcare workers
HB Wealth, a $33 billion Atlanta RIA, is entering Texas by buying Wealth Care, a $700 million firm that advises healthcare workers. Hightower's deal for Sandy Cove, a divorce and legacy-planning specialist, shows PE-backed platforms still buying client niches in small pieces.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- Wealth Care founder Steven Podnos was a pulmonary and critical care physician before becoming an adviser, and practiced in the Air Force Reserve until 2023.
- Texas is HB Wealth's seventh market, joining Georgia, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
- Sandy Cove, Hightower Signature Wealth's third external acquisition of 2026, is expected to close at the end of the third quarter and lift the unit above $40 billion.
- Carson Group added a former Commonwealth Financial Network team with about $120 million from southeastern Ohio to its 1099 advisor channel.
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Why it matters
- cost HB would need about 47 deals of Wealth Care's size to double its $33 billion, so its private equity backers are paying for growth through many small, separately negotiated purchases.
- precedent With Cerity signing three deals in a single week, owners of sub-$1 billion firms are selling into an active buyer market, and a defined client base is one way for a seller to stand out in it.
- decision Founders choosing an exit now weigh a full sale to a platform against a seat in a 1099 channel; the Carson team took the channel and listed independence among its priorities.
Next to its buyer, Wealth Care is small. Its $700 million is about 2.1% of HB Wealth's $33 billion [1]. Sandy Cove's $752 million will be at most 1.9% of Hightower Signature Wealth, which the company expects to pass $40 billion once the deal closes [2]. Neither deal changes its buyer's size much. What HB bought is a client type, and a founder whose medical career gave him expertise in advising physicians and healthcare professionals, according to the roundup [3].
The deals fit more than one explanation. If specialist books sell at a premium, the physicians and the clients going through divorce are the asset being priced [1][9]. If the niche is incidental, the buyers want any sub-$1 billion firm whose founder is ready to sell. The third possibility is that a niche is how a platform opens a new state. Texas fits that, since HB went in with a firm built around one profession [1]. Only half of that footprint is new ground. Wealth Care's other office is in Cocoa Beach, Fla. [2], and Florida is already an HB market [5].
The rest of the roundup shows buyers also taking books with no single specialty. OnePoint BFG, an $18 billion firm, added two teams worth about 1.3% of its assets [4]: one in Tampa, and one in Atlanta that came from Lanier Asset Management [15]. Carson's new team is under 0.2% of a firm with more than $65 billion [5]. Its clients are a mix of retirees, pre-retirees, small business owners and women navigating life transitions [17]. Only two of the four moves are built around a single client specialty [6].
Three of the four buyers have private equity investors [7]. New Mountain Capital and TPG Growth hold minority stakes in HB alongside its employees [6]. Thomas H. Lee Partners, which first invested in 2018 and recapitalized the firm with other investors in 2020, holds a majority of Hightower [12]. Rise Growth Partners backs OnePoint BFG [14]. Both specialist sellers had their own advisers: Advisor Growth Strategies for Wealth Care [7], and Rick Adler of Red Arrow Capital for Sandy Cove [13]. The roundup does not include a price for any of the deals.
The two specialist founders describe the exchange in nearly the same words. "Joining HB Wealth ... allows us to preserve the independent, fiduciary approach that has always defined our work while expanding the depth of advice and resources we can bring to each relationship," Podnos said [4]. "Joining HTSW gives us broader resources to support that work while preserving the personal relationships, values and client-first philosophy that have always defined Sandy Cove," Prescott said [10].
I think the niche matters mostly as a way into new territory. HB used a profession-specific firm to open Texas [1], while OnePoint's two teams went to Florida and Georgia to expand a presence it already had [14]. The view is wrong if prices come out showing specialist firms selling at the same multiple as books with no specialty. In that case the buyers are paying for assets under management alone.
What to watch
- Whether Sandy Cove closes at the end of the third quarter and Hightower Signature Wealth reports assets above $40 billion.
- HB Wealth's next Texas addition: a team with no specialty would support the view that the healthcare niche was the way in.
- Details on Cerity's three deals of the week, including seller size and client focus.