HighTower Advisors, a wealth manager expanding nationwide through a series of takeovers, said on Tuesday it acquired a team of Merrill Lynch advisers in Portland, Maine, known as the Simmons Wilkes Group. Chicago-based HighTower said it added Edward Simmons, Gibson Wilkes, Blake Wilkes and Michael Simmons as managing directors and partners. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Edward Simmons, who began his brokerage career at Merrill in 1987, was a Barron's Top 1000 Financial Advisor for the past two years. According to Barron's, Simmons managed $500 million with the average of $2 million per account.
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