Encore Bank says it has fulfilled its plan to round out the services it offers wealth management clients with the deal it announced last week to buy a Houston asset management firm.
More acquisitions are unlikely in the near future, said James S. D'Agostino, Jr., the chairman and chief executive officer of Encore. "We have completed the acquisitions we needed to provide the best service to clients," he said.
The privately owned Houston bank said it has a definitive agreement, which it expects to complete in the third quarter, to buy Linscomb & Williams, a financial planning and wealth management firm with $1.2 billion of assets under management. The deal's terms were not disclosed.
"It really fills out the services that we are looking to provide our client group - lawyers, doctors, executives, investors, entrepreneurs, and affluent persons," Mr. D'Agostino said. "We didn't have these services," he said, referring to Linscomb's financial planning, estate and income tax planning, and investment management services, and they help meet Encore customers' "overall financial needs."
Linscomb's managed assets, combined with those of Encore Trust Co., would bring the bank's total to nearly $2 billion.
Mr. D'Agostino said the deal fits Encore Bank's overall strategy to be a wealth management, private banking, trust, and financial planning provider.
Linscomb & Williams is an independent firm of former lawyers and certified public accountants who supply financial planning and investment management services. It is a registered investment adviser with more than 1,200 clients.
Mr. D'Agostino would not discuss sales goals or expectations for the Linscomb deal.
Of his target customer, he said, "It's an affluent person that has some assets they want taken care of. We have clients with half a million dollars to $50 million." The bank has about 10,000 customers.
This was Encore Bank's third deal in the past eight months.
In January its Town and Country Insurance Agency affiliate bought the business of John A. Bumstead & Associates Inc., a Houston agency specializing in personal insurance lines.
The Bumstead agency offers products including homeowners, auto, renters, and flood insurance, the bank said on Thursday. Encore specializes in private banking and has more than $1 billion of assets in nine Houston branches and five on Florida's west coast.
In September, the bank bought National Fiduciary Services, a Houston trust company. The purchase brought in $700 million of personal trust assets under management.
In another deal unveiled last week, Cardinal Financial Corp., a financial holding company in Tysons Corner, Va., said it had agreed to buy the Alexandria, Va.-based asset management firm Wilson/Bennett Capital Management Inc. for about $6.6 million of common stock and cash. The deal is expected to close early in the third quarter.
A Securities and Exchange Commission filing reported by Dow Jones said that John W. Fisher, a member of Cardinal Financial's board, is the founder, president, chief investment officer, and 90%-owner of Wilson/Bennett. Because of this board membership, the deal was negotiated between Cardinal and James Moloney, the other shareholder of Wilson/Bennett, the filing said.
