Clearstead Advisors announced its entry into the Chicago market and its first buy under new President and CEO Bradley Knapp with the purchase of Waveland Family Office, a Deerfield, Ill.-based RIA with $420 million in AUM.
Clearstead closed the deal for Waveland on Jan. 31, bringing on six employees, including principals Allen C. Berg and Dennis Zaslavsky, who will join as equity partners in Clearstead. The firms did not disclose the terms of the deal.
The acquisition is the first since Clearstead named Knapp president and CEO in December. He succeeded David C. Fulton Jr., who took the helm in 2014 when the firm had $2.2 billion in AUM and 55 employees.
With the addition of Waveland, Clearstead now has 270 employees across 12 offices, $22 billion in AUM, and $47 billion in assets under advisement, including its subsidiaries.
Waveland has a family office practice serving high-net-worth families. Its services include financial and estate planning, investment management, and tax planning and compliance.
The RIA has been working with Cleveland-based Clearstead as a subadvisor since its inception, and now employees will operate under the Clearstead name.
“Joining Clearstead is a major step forward for Waveland as we continue to better serve our clients with differentiated financial advising, tools and resources,” Berg said in a statement. “Clearstead’s rapid growth in the industry and a sizeable presence in regional markets will give Waveland strength and capabilities as we seek to grow with high-net-worth families in new ways.”
Knapp said the firm considered the acquisition “an investment in the Chicago market,” with plans to continue expanding.
Knapp joined Clearstead in 2016 as head of the private client group and, two years later, took over the trust practice. He was named president in 2023.
In 2022, Clearstead received a majority equity investment from Flexpoint Ford, a private equity firm. Its other recent acquisitions were in Ohio, New Mexico and Virginia.