Leading registered financial advisor (RIA) Clearstead Advisors has acquired the assets of Wilbanks Smith and Thomas Asset Management (WST), a Norfolk, Virginia-based wealth and investment management firm with over $5 billion of assets under management. This combination continues Clearstead’s growth trajectory and further consolidates Clearstead’s position among the leading RIAs in the US.
After the merger, Clearstead Advisors and its subsidiaries will have about $44 billion in total assets under advisement, including $20 billion in total assets under management, 225 employees, and offices in nine cities. Plus, the six WST partners will become shareholders in Clearstead, increasing the total to 65 employee-owners of the firm. The advisory business of WST will be rebranded as Clearstead Advisory Solutions, a Division of Clearstead Advisors, LLC, and continue serving clients from offices in Norfolk and Roanoke, Virginia, and Raleigh, North Carolina.
WST was founded in 1990 by CEO Wayne Wilbanks, who will continue to lead the Division in Norfolk and the Mid-Atlantic states. And its 45 employees provide financial advisory services to families and individuals, institutions, and financial service firms nationwide.
Launched in 1989 and with its headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio, Clearstead currently serves nearly 1,200 individual and family clients. It integrates tax, planning, and family office services with investment management and over 245 endowments and foundations, retirement plans, and hospitals.
In 2022, Clearstead received a majority equity investment from Flexpoint Ford, a PE firm specializing in financial services and healthcare investments. And since then, the firm has continued to grow organically and through acquisitions and strategic hires, with WST its largest acquisition to date.
Recent acquisitions and expansions include Burkhart & Co., Snow Financial Advisors, Avalon Trust, CLS Consulting, and a team of eight financial professionals who joined from a major financial services firm’s Hudson, Ohio office.
KEY QUOTES:
“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. Most importantly, our clients will benefit from Clearstead’s family office planning capabilities, alternative investments platform, in-house research, and wealth management capabilities.”
– CEO Wayne Wilbanks
“Strategic and prudent mergers make us a stronger firm – each brings talent and capabilities to serve clients more effectively, which is our primary focus. This is the impetus for our combination with WST, for which we have the highest hopes.”
– Clearstead Chief Executive Dave Fulton
