WA Asset Management, an asset management firm partly owned by Warren Averett CPAs & Advisors, has acquired Clark Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisory firm in Birmingham, Alabama.
The deal is the first since Birmingham-based Warren Averett sold a majority stake in its asset management subsidiary last November to Wealth Partners Capital Group, a financial services holding company in Palm Beach, Florida, and HGGC, an investment firm in Palo Alto, California (
The deal is part of a growing trend in which investment firms and private equity firms have been investing in accounting firms. In January,
WA Asset Management hopes to entice more firms that operate wealth management practices, especially accounting firms. “This is our first acquisition to close since we received our investment from Wealth Partners and HGGC,” said WAAM CEO Josh Reidinger. “We definitely have several other opportunities that we’re excited about. We’re not to the point of releasing anything at this point, but we’re very excited about some opportunities that we have. One of our biggest areas that we’re focused on are CPA firms that have wealth management practices. That is one of the areas that we are most focused upon. We’re having conversations with CPA firms across the country that have a wealth management practice. Some of those can be subsidiaries. Sometimes they just have a connection with a wealth practice that’s affiliated with a CPA firm. I was with Warren Averett for 26 years. We obviously understand that CPA world through and through. We’re highly focused upon having conversations about other groups that are similar to what we were at Warren Averett joining us.”
Its first deal, with Clark Financial Advisors, is with a financial advisory firm, not an accounting firm. CFA was founded by M. Brooks Clark and provides fee-only investment management and financial planning services to high-net-worth clients. Financial and legal terms of the deal were not disclosed. WAAM manages $4.3 billion in assets as of March 31, 2022 and offers collaborative investment, tax, estate and financial planning services. Founded in 1999 in Birmingham, it has five offices across the Southeast and a team of over 40 professionals. Warren Averett ranked No. 41 on Accounting Today’s 2022 list of the Top 100 Firms, with $159.7 million in annual revenue.
Reidinger sees the deal strengthening the firm in its hometown. “We are headquartered in Birmingham and Clark is also headquartered in Birmingham,” he said. “It’s a really strong group that has a decades-long history and has a deep commitment to financial planning and taking incredible care of their clients. They have a strong culture, and will be a wonderful addition to us in our Birmingham market.”
