Hightower announced this week that Bob Oros would step down from his role as CEO in the spring. The move could signal a third stage of evolution for one of the country’s largest registered investment advisors, according to industry observers.
Oros, who will be moving to a board role this spring, took over as CEO for the Chicago-based RIA in 2019, after the firm’s founder had built it into a network of mostly breakaway wirehouse advisors representing about $60 billion in assets under management. In a relatively short time, Oros took the firm in a new direction, shifting from its original partnership model to focus solely on acquiring large RIAs with the support of private equity funding.
Over his tenure, Hightower made over 50 acquisitions, building assets to $258 billion under management and $1.81 trillion under advisement.
A big chunk of those assets came from Hightower’s acquisition of NEPC, an institutional consulting firm and outsourced chief investment officer, in October 2024. That deal brought relationships with some of the country’s largest employers, endowments, and public funds, as well as institutional research and investment resources.
But this week Hightower and its private equity backer, Thomas H. Lee Partners, signaled a new direction with the addition of Larry Restieri, former CEO of AYCO, a Goldman Sachs company specializing in workplace financial planning and private wealth advisory services, as its chief executive. Prior to that role, Restieri had held leadership positions with Goldman in wealth and asset management.
“When Hightower brought in Bob he had proven and effective leadership in the sector,” said Jessica Polito, founder and principal at Turkey Hill Management. “It makes sense to bring in someone now with institutional experience from a highly-regarded firm such as Goldman Sachs to take the company through its next phase of growth.”
Oros led Hightower to be one of the first and largest movers in RIA M&A space, said Andrew Besheer, managing principal of Besheer & Associates. But now, senior leadership may want to focus on scaling its current platform and resources for organic growth, he said.
“They’ve been really successful in gaining scale through inorganic growth, but growing through acquisitions can only get you so far,” Besheer said. “They may be turning to the process of integrating all of those firms, driving greater cost and scale efficiencies in their platform and seeking ways to get a bigger share of the wallet from existing clients.”
Of course, many RIAs and advisors are focusing on organic growth. But, in part because of Oros’ dealmaking, Hightower may be particularly well positioned to make such a transition work, says Louis Diamond, president of Diamond Consultants.
“They will still be acquisitive, but now they’re going to focus on building the best possible company and focus on organic growth, and take the business to the next level,” he said. “The cost of capital is still really high for acquirers, and it’s a super competitive market. If you can figure out how to grow organically, it’s significantly more cost-efficient, and it’s going to be more valuable when they have an exit. So maybe that’s going to be the charge of the new CEO.”
Dan Seivert, CEO and managing partner of Echelon Partners, does not see Hightower moving away from acquisitions, but believes the firm has and will remain focused on both strategies.
He thought the Restieri hire was great, “given the high AUM profile of AYCO clients and many Hightower clients,” and noted that AYCO has a history of working with Fortune 1,000 clients.
Oros took over the CEO role from Elliot Weissbluth, who founded Hightower in 2007, with a focus on giving large wirehouse teams a place to open independent practices through partnership. That strategy created a large network of RIAs and became an early model for the shift to independence.
In 2017, private equity firm Thomas H. Lee took a stake in Hightower to help fuel acquisition growth. Oros took over two years later to start a process that would hyper-charge Hightower’s dealmaking, with a strategy of acquiring some of its partners outright along with other large RIAs who would fit into their model.
“Bob did an amazing job in transforming Hightower,” Diamond said. “He is very well respected in the industry … I’m sure the private equity owners were pleased, and I’m sure that the valuation soared as a result.”
Last May, WealthManagement.com reported the private equity firm had taken Hightower off the market because it didn’t get the desired price from prospective buyers, according to sources close to the firm and investment bankers. Last April, Hightower named Gurinder Ahluwalia, the lead director of the firm’s board of directors, to the newly-created position of president.
At this point, Diamond can see the desire for the firm to shift in a new direction.
“It happens, especially with bigger companies like this, where you need different leaders at different points in time,” he said.
Given Restieri’s background with AYCO, which provides customized financial planning to corporate executives, Hightower has a chance to expand its services and go deeper with profitable clients to expand wallet share, Diamond said. He also noted the opportunity to expand corporate-level relationships with Fortune 500 companies and then become the expert financial planner that comes into the company.
A Hightower spokesperson declined to comment beyond the press release about Restieri’s appointment.