The acquisition of HD Vest Financial Services by Blucora is a natural evolution in the growth of a independent broker-dealer that has gone through several transitions over the years, says Roger Ochs, president and CEO of HD Vest.
The announcement was made Wednesday that HD Vest is being acquired by Blucora, primarily an Internet company, for $580 million, one of the largest independent broker-dealer acquisitions of the year.
HD Vest, which specializes in tax and accounting professionals who expand to financial planning, will now have an alignment with TaxAct, another Blucora company.
“We have 4,600 advisors who work with clients and helping them will remain our core business,” says Ochs. Those advisors manage more than $36 billion in client assets. “We are in a position to be a large player within Blucora.”
TaxAct, an online tax preparation company, has 5.5 million customers. Many of those are millennials who are just starting out, but they will eventually be buying houses and saving for their children’s education and retirement, which will put them in line to be potential HD Vest clients, Ochs says.
“In addition, 450,000 of those TaxAct clients have adjusted gross incomes of more than $100,000 a year and 28,000 have AGIs of greater than $250,000,” Ochs adds. “That is an opportunity for us.
“This acquisition is part of a natural evolution from a privately held company to a publically held one. It gives our advisors a chance to invest in the company, which they have wanted to do. It also gives us the capital to reinvest in the company,” he says.
It is the third time in recent history that the firm has been sold. In 2001, founder and owner Herb D. Vest sold the firm to Wells Fargo, and then in 2011 private equity firms led by Parthenon Capital Partners bought it.