Tampa Is Florida's Most Contested Wealth Management Market. Hightower Hits $40 Billion. Sibos Is 15 Days Away.

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FLOW Florida Financial Intelligence Week Ending September 13, 2026 · Published Monday, September 14, 2026

Tampa Is Florida’s Most Contested Wealth Management Market. Hightower Hits $40 Billion. OnePointBFG Adds Its Second Florida Team. Sibos Is 15 Days Away. Two deals, same city, same week. Hightower Signature Wealth — headquartered in Tampa — crossed $40 billion in AUM by absorbing a $1.6 billion affiliate into its employee advisor platform. OnePointBFG Wealth Partners, based in New Jersey, acquired Tampa’s Bast Financial Group ($400 million) as its second Florida acquisition of 2026. Business owners, executives, and UHNW families with complex planning needs are the shared client profile. Tampa is now the most actively acquired wealth management geography in Florida outside of the Miami-Palm Beach corridor.

FLORIDA CAPITAL FLOWS

Tampa: The Most Actively Acquired Wealth Management Geography Outside Miami-Palm Beach Two closed transactions in the same week involving the same city tell a specific story. Tampa’s advisory market has become the primary Florida acquisition target for platforms operating outside the South Florida corridor. Hightower Signature Wealth — headquartered in Tampa, majority-owned by Thomas H. Lee Partners — absorbed a $1.6 billion affiliate into its employee advisor channel in late August, pushing total AUM past $40 billion. The platform now counts more than 130 advisors across more than 30 locations. CEO Brad Bueermann confirmed additional Hightower Signature Wealth acquisitions are expected throughout 2026. The $40 billion milestone, reached in less than 12 months of the platform’s existence, is one of the fastest AUM accumulation stories in the history of the W-2 advisory channel. OnePointBFG Wealth Partners — a Parsippany, New Jersey-based RIA managing $18 billion nationally — acquired Bast Financial Group, a Tampa-based wealth management firm, on September 4. The Bast team of seven, led by founder Rebecca Bast, brings $400 million in AUM focused on business owners, executives, and families navigating multigenerational wealth transfer. It is OnePointBFG’s second Florida acquisition of 2026, following its April addition of Armstrong & Sinoff Financial in Winter Park ($425 million), which expanded OnePointBFG into the Orlando market. The two acquisitions share a client profile that is instructive: business owners, executives, and families with complex planning needs. That is not a generic description. It is the specific financial profile that Tampa generates in volume — a metro economy built around financial services (USAA, Raymond James, WellCare, Franklin Templeton), healthcare, technology, and logistics, with a growing population of founder-led businesses and corporate executives making wealth transition decisions in the $2 million to $25 million range. Tampa’s advisory market is generating acquisition targets at a pace and client quality that national platforms have now formally identified.

The Florida Statewide Story Is Now Fully Documented FLOW has tracked the Florida financial story at the city level since January. The accumulation of evidence now tells a statewide story, not a Brickell story. Tampa: Hightower Signature Wealth ($40B HQ), OnePointBFG acquisitions, DayMark Wealth Partners Fort Lauderdale and Stuart offices, Dynasty Financial Partners St. Petersburg HQ, Unique Wealth Tampa Bay, Jazz Wealth ($469M in the Steward Partners Q2). Naples: Evertern Wealth ($2.4B), Rockefeller’s Coplin team ($1B), Fifth Avenue Family Office. Fort Lauderdale: The entire FIFO infrastructure, including FIFO events, DayMark, and the $1.3B

convention center. Orlando: OnePointBFG’s Armstrong & Sinoff ($425M), Hightower locations. Jacksonville: the SFR institutional market documented in the ROAD to Housing Act analysis. The Florida financial ecosystem is not concentrated in two ZIP codes. It runs from Jacksonville to Tampa to Orlando to Fort Lauderdale to Miami to Naples to Palm Beach. National platforms that have been building Florida presence by opening one Brickell office are discovering that the best advisory practices in the state are in Tampa, Naples, Winter Park, and Jupiter. The platforms that mapped Florida at the county and metro level are winning. The ones that mapped it at the street address are behind.

HIGHTOWER HIGHTOWER ONEPOINTBFG SIBOS 2026 — SIGNATURE ADVISORS / FLORIDA AUM DAYS UNTIL MIAMI WEALTH AUM LOCATIONS (2026 DEALS) 15 $40B+ 130+ / 30+ $825M September 28 · Miami Crossed threshold with Tampa HQ · Thomas H. Lee Bast Financial ($400M Beach Convention Center $1.6B late-August affiliate Partners majority-owned Tampa) + Armstrong & conversion Sinoff ($425M Orlando)

RIA & WEALTH MANAGEMENT M&A

OnePointBFG’s Florida Playbook: Two Deals, Two Markets, Same Quarter OnePointBFG’s two Florida acquisitions — Armstrong & Sinoff in Winter Park (April) and Bast Financial in Tampa (September) — reveal a deliberate state-level strategy, not opportunistic deal flow. Both firms serve the same client archetype: business owners and executives with complex planning needs, in growth markets outside South Florida’s ultra-premium tier. Winter Park is one of Central Florida’s highest-income communities, adjacent to corporate Orlando’s C-suite and entrepreneurial wealth base. Tampa is the Gulf Coast’s most active business formation and executive compensation market. The two acquisitions together give OnePointBFG a Gulf Coast platform (Tampa) and an Atlantic- adjacent inland platform (Winter Park) that can serve the full I-4 corridor wealth market. OnePointBFG CEO Andy Schwartz described the Bast acquisition as strengthening the firm’s “ability to serve business owners, executives and families navigating complex financial decisions and multigenerational planning.” Rebecca Bast, the founder, has been in practice since 1994 and was recognized as one of AdvisorHub’s Top 100 Women Advisors to Watch in 2024. She is not exiting. She is joining a national platform with $18 billion in assets while maintaining the client relationships built over three decades. That is the standard template for the most effective Florida successions: founder stays, scale arrives, client relationships are preserved.

Hightower Signature Wealth Crosses $40 Billion from Tampa The $1.6 billion affiliate that Hightower Signature Wealth converted from its affiliates channel to its employee advisor channel in late August was the transaction that pushed the platform past $40 billion. The conversion model — pulling affiliate practices into the W-2 employee advisor structure — is the organic growth mechanism that complements Hightower Signature Wealth’s external acquisitions. It requires no outbound M&A sourcing. It requires the existing affiliate to decide that the W-2 platform structure is preferable to the independent affiliate arrangement. The fact that Hightower Signature Wealth is converting $1.6 billion affiliates while simultaneously pursuing external acquisitions, all from a Tampa headquarters, is the clearest expression of what a mature, scaled wealth management platform operating from a Florida base looks like in 2026. Three years ago, that sentence would have described a New York operation. Today it describes Tampa.

The Broader M&A Context: Wealth Enhancement Continues Acquiring Through Its Own Sale Process Wealth Enhancement Group — the subject of the Carlyle-Bain $7 billion bidding war — added a $345 million Alaska RIA on September 3 and a $376 million Virginia hybrid RIA on September 1. The firm is acquiring practices while being acquired itself. That is not unusual — it reflects the pressure on the management team to demonstrate continued growth momentum to maximize value in the sale process. But it is worth noting for Florida advisors considering Wealth Enhancement as a buyer: a platform that is simultaneously selling itself and buying others has divided strategic attention and a potential ownership transition within 6-12 months of any deal. For Florida principals evaluating their options, the Wealth Enhancement dynamic is a specific diligence question: if I close a deal with Wealth Enhancement today, what happens to the platform’s integration commitment and management stability when Carlyle or Bain completes the acquisition? That is not a reason to avoid the transaction. It is a reason to understand the terms, the management continuity provisions, and the post-acquisition integration plan before signing.

BANKING / INSURANCE / PRIVATE CREDIT

OFAC GL 60: 38 Days Remaining — This Is Now Urgent OFAC’s General License 60, authorizing transactions related to Venezuela earthquake relief, expires October 23, 2026. That is approximately 38 days from today. Miami-based wealth managers and RIAs with Venezuelan client exposure are now in the final stretch of this compliance window. Any transactional activity that relies on GL 60 authorization — asset transfers, cash movements, account openings, securities transactions on behalf of Venezuelan clients — must be completed, properly documented, and archived before October 23. After that date, the authorization lapses. Transactions that would have been covered under GL 60 will require either a separately issued license or compliance with the underlying sanctions framework. The post-October 23 planning question is: which Venezuelan client relationships involve ongoing transactional needs that will require a specific licensing decision after GL 60 expires? Managers who have not yet mapped their Venezuelan client books against the post-October 23 scenario are now behind. The 38-day window is not a planning horizon. It is a compliance deadline.

The Housing Law’s Florida Construction Lending Acceleration The ROAD to Housing Act is now nine weeks into implementation. The build-to-rent construction loan origination data from Florida’s I-4 corridor and Gulf Coast markets continues to track above prior-year pace. Invitation Homes, AMH, and their build-to-rent development partners have accelerated their ground-up pipelines in the Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville markets. For Florida’s non-bank construction lenders, the deal flow is materializing as projected. The permitting streamlining provisions — still working through state and local implementation — have not yet produced measurable acceleration in Miami-Dade or Broward permitting timelines, but the Miami-Dade same-day permitting ordinance implementation is the specific development to watch in Q4.

INSTITUTIONAL & ALLOCATOR MOVES

Sibos Is 15 Days Away — This Is the Final Planning Window SWIFT’s Sibos 2026 convenes at Miami Beach Convention Center on September 28. Fifteen days from today. The window for pre-arranged meetings, dinner reservations, and structured introductions around the conference is closing. For managers who have been building Florida LP and client relationships throughout 2026, the Sibos calendar is not a passive opportunity. It is an active deployment question: which of the 10,000 attendees arriving in Miami Beach on September 28 are the highest-priority relationship conversations for this firm, and what is the mechanism for arranging those conversations? The FIFO network provides one access

pathway. The Markets Group event infrastructure provides another. Existing LP relationships provide a third. Managers who approach Sibos without a pre-arranged agenda will find the conference useful but not transformative. Managers who arrive with 8-10 pre-scheduled conversations already in the calendar will find it the most productive four days of their year. The Sibos theme — “Digital Finance for AI-Driven Economies” — will dominate the conference agenda content. But the relationship activity that produces LP commitments and long-term client partnerships happens in the margins of the agenda: at the dinners, in the networking lounges, and in the bilateral meetings that the conference format creates the pretext for. Florida-based managers who have built content and track record sufficient to warrant a conversation with a LATAM family office principal or a European private bank head now have the physical proximity to make that conversation happen. Use it.

Markets Group Private Wealth Real Estate Retreat — Completed September 10 The Markets Group invitation-only Private Real Estate Investment Retreat convened in Miami on September 10 as planned. The event brought together multi-family offices, RIAs, and investment consultants for real estate allocation discussions. For managers who attended: the September calendar has now opened one full event, with Sibos as the anchor closing the month. For managers who did not attend: the next comparable event in Miami is likely Q1 2027. The fall institutional convening season is concentrated in the next 15 days.

Amendment 3: The November Vote Is Seven Weeks Away Amendment 3 remains before Leon County Circuit Judge David Frank for approval of the revised ballot language submitted by AG Uthmeier on August 14. The November 3 vote is seven weeks away. The December 31, 2026 UHNW domicile planning deadline is eleven weeks away. Florida advisors who have been building Amendment 3 advisory conversations with clients since June have had the most time to identify eligible clients, run the arithmetic on their specific property tax exposure, and execute domicile transitions before year-end. Advisors starting these conversations this week are not too late — but they are late relative to the competition. The window is still open. The competitive advantage of being first has already been captured by the advisors who acted in the summer.

DEAL RADAR

DEAL / MOVE DETAIL

OnePointBFG ($18B) → Bast September 4, 2026 · 7-person team, Rebecca Bast founder · Financial Group (Tampa, $400M) Business owners, executives, multigenerational wealth transfer · OnePointBFG’s 2nd FL deal of 2026 · Rise Growth Partners- backed · Builds on April Orlando deal ($425M)

Hightower Signature Wealth Late August / September 2026 · $1.6B affiliate conversion to crosses $40B AUM (Tampa HQ) employee advisor channel · 130+ advisors, 30+ locations · Thomas H. Lee Partners majority-owned · Additional 2026 acquisitions expected

OnePointBFG → Armstrong & April 2026 (confirmed context this week) · Orlando metro · Sinoff Financial (Winter Park, Northwestern Mutual breakaway · Combined with Bast Financial: $425M) $825M FL AUM added in 2026

Wealth Enhancement Group Virginia ($376M hybrid RIA, Sep 1) · Alaska ($345M Anchorage continues acquiring RIA, Sep 3) · Acquiring while being sold in $7B Carlyle-Bain process · Diligence question for FL sellers: post-acquisition integration stability

Sibos 2026 — 15 days to Miami Miami Beach Convention Center · 10,000+ attendees · Jane (September 28) Fraser (Citi CEO) · Theme: Digital Finance for AI-Driven

Economies · Final planning window for pre-arranged meetings now closing

OFAC GL 60: ~38 days remaining Expires October 23, 2026 · Venezuela earthquake relief authorization · Final stretch · Miami firms: map Venezuelan client books against post-October 23 transactional needs NOW

Amendment 3 — Nov 3 vote: 7 Still before Judge Frank for ballot language approval · December weeks away 31, 2026 UHNW domicile deadline: 11 weeks away · Advisors who haven’t started client conversations are behind the competitive curve ROAD to Housing Act — 9 weeks in BTR pipelines accelerating in Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville · Miami-Dade same-day permitting implementation ongoing · Federal permitting streamlining not yet measurably impacting coastal market timelines

Hightower Signature Wealth + September 1 · Enterprise data orchestration across custodians · Dispatch (data platform) Operational infrastructure at institutional scale from Tampa HQ

RIA M&A YTD 2026 context ~300+ transactions through mid-September · On pace for 500+ full-year · PE-backed buyers: 85%+ · Median target size $733M · Cash at close trending toward 55-65% vs. 80% in 2019 · Earn- outs and rollover equity now standard

3 STRATEGIC INSIGHTS FOR MANAGERS

01 Tampa’s Emergence as a Primary Acquisition Market Confirms the Florida Statewide Thesis — and Identifies the Next Geography to Watch The simultaneous acquisition activity in Tampa this week — Hightower Signature Wealth crossing $40 billion and OnePointBFG adding its second Florida practice — is not a coincidence. It is evidence that Tampa’s wealth management market has crossed the institutional attention threshold. The same threshold Miami crossed in 2021, Palm Beach crossed in 2022, and Naples crossed in early 2025. The leading indicator is always the same: national platforms begin acquiring local practices, platforms establish local offices, and the competition for clients and advisors intensifies. For managers who have been building Florida presence only in Miami and Palm Beach, Tampa’s emergence as a primary acquisition geography is both a competitive warning and an opportunity map. The practices in Fort Myers, Sarasota, and Gainesville that fit the business-owner-and-executive client profile are the next wave of acquisition targets — and they are currently less competed over than equivalent Tampa practices. The window to build those relationships before the national platforms arrive is still open.

02 The OFAC GL 60 Deadline Is Not a Planning Horizon — It Is a Hard Compliance Cutoff That Requires Action This Week The 38-day countdown to October 23 requires a specific operational response from every Miami- based wealth manager and RIA with Venezuelan client exposure. The response is not a calendar reminder. It is a client book review: identify every account or relationship where GL 60 has been the authorization basis for transactional activity since June 24, document that reliance properly, ensure the documentation will survive regulatory scrutiny, and map which relationships will have ongoing transactional needs after October 23 that require either a new specific license or a restructuring of the financial relationship to operate within the standard sanctions framework. Managers who complete this review in the next two weeks will have four weeks of buffer before the deadline. Managers who begin it on October 20 will not.

03 Hightower’s $40 Billion Milestone From Tampa Is the Definitive Case Study in What Scaling a Florida-Based Platform Actually Looks Like When Hightower Signature Wealth launched its direct-to-consumer advisory brand in October 2025 from a Tampa headquarters, it was a strategic bet that Florida’s advisor talent pool and client density could support a $50 billion-plus employee advisory platform. Less than 12 months later, the platform has crossed $40 billion in AUM, added more than 130 advisors and 30 locations, absorbed a $1.6 billion affiliate into its employee channel, and continues to acquire externally. That trajectory — from launch to $40 billion in under a year — is not explicable by favorable market conditions alone. It requires the advisor talent density, the UHNW client base, and the institutional infrastructure that Florida specifically provides. For managers still evaluating whether Florida can support the kind of scaled financial services operation they are trying to build: the Hightower Signature Wealth case study is the answer. Not as a projection. As a fact.

LinkedIn Post Two deals. Same city. Same week. Tampa is Florida’s most contested wealth management market right now. This week’s FLOW report: • Hightower Signature Wealth (Tampa HQ) crossed $40 billion in AUM after absorbing a $1.6 billion affiliate into its employee advisor channel. 130+ advisors, 30+ locations. From $0 to $40B in under 12 months. Additional acquisitions expected throughout 2026. • OnePointBFG Wealth Partners acquired Tampa’s Bast Financial Group ($400M, September 4) — its second Florida acquisition of 2026, following Armstrong & Sinoff Financial in Orlando ($425M, April). National platform, NJ-based, now building a full Florida Gulf Coast + I-4 corridor presence. • Sibos 2026 is 15 days away — September 28, Miami Beach Convention Center, 10,000+ attendees. The window for pre-arranged meetings around the conference is closing. The managers who arrive with 8-10 pre-scheduled conversations already in the calendar will have the most productive four days of their year. • OFAC GL 60 expires October 23 — 38 days from today. Miami firms with Venezuelan client exposure: this is a compliance deadline, not a planning horizon. Map your Venezuelan client book against post-October 23 transactional needs this week. The statewide Florida thesis is fully documented now. Tampa. Orlando. Naples. Fort Lauderdale. Palm Beach. Miami. The platforms that mapped at the city level are winning. Read the full FLOW report here: [Insert Link]

Email Summary Subject: FLOW Weekly Report — Week Ending September 13, 2026 This week’s FLOW report documents the emergence of Tampa as Florida’s most actively acquired wealth management geography outside the Miami-Palm Beach corridor. Two closed transactions confirmed the dynamic. Hightower Signature Wealth — headquartered in Tampa and majority-owned by Thomas H. Lee Partners — absorbed a $1.6 billion affiliate into its employee advisor platform in late August, crossing $40 billion in AUM with more than 130 advisors across more than 30 locations. OnePointBFG Wealth Partners ($18 billion nationally, Rise Growth Partners-backed) acquired Bast Financial Group (Tampa, $400 million) on September 4 as its second Florida acquisition of 2026, following Armstrong & Sinoff Financial in Winter Park ($425 million, April). Both acquisitions target the same client profile: business owners, executives, and families with complex planning and multigenerational wealth transfer needs.

On the institutional calendar, Sibos 2026 — SWIFT’s annual global financial services conference, convening in Miami Beach for the first time in its 48-year history — is 15 days away (September 28). The window for pre-arranged meetings around the conference is closing. OFAC’s General License 60 authorizing Venezuela earthquake relief transactions expires in 38 days (October 23), requiring active client book reviews and documentation from every Miami-based manager with Venezuelan client exposure. Amendment 3’s November 3 ballot vote is 7 weeks away, with the December 31, 2026 UHNW domicile deadline at 11 weeks. Strategic insights focus on Tampa’s emergence as a primary acquisition geography and what it signals about the next Florida markets to watch; why the OFAC GL 60 deadline requires operational action this week rather than next month; and why Hightower Signature Wealth’s $0-to-$40B trajectory from Tampa is the definitive case study in what scaling a Florida-based platform actually looks like.

FLOW — Florida Financial Intelligence · For institutional use · Not investment advice