Lexington Wealth Management Reflects After One Year at Hightower

It has officially been one year since Lexington Wealth Management, based in Lexington, Massachusetts, joined the Hightower family. We spoke with co-founders Kristine Porcaro and Michael Tucci about how their first year went and what they hope for in the coming years.

Both Porcaro and Tucci view themselves as entrepreneurs above anything else in this business. Before joining Hightower, they built Lexington Wealth Management to a $1 billion firm. Not surprising, when they began conversations with Hightower, they knew their entrepreneurial spirit was not something they could afford – or wanted – to lose.

“Joining Hightower has allowed us to do what we love to do, keep our culture and team in place, and hand off smaller tasks so we can focus on service and growth strategies,” Porcaro explains. “It has also helped us to include upcoming leaders in the firm onto our management team, set clear firm individual goals and hold people accountable with clear measurables.”

Having the opportunity, through Hightower, to train the next generation of leaders is something Porcaro and Tucci both identified as a differentiated aspect of being a part of the Hightower community.

“We’ve always wanted to have our next generation of folks trained to move up, but didn’t have the organization around it,” Tucci says. “Now, our younger team members are feeling more empowered than ever before and are really excited for the growth of the firm.”

With the boost in team moral and structure in place, Lexington, with the help of the Hightower Advisor Success and M&A teams, is now able to focus on four to six annual goals to stay on track. Previously, they had planned for the next three to five years, but the team never had the ability to execute on that plan. “Since joining Hightower, capacity has flung wide open.”, says Parcaro.

However, with any large organizational change, this first year did present some challenges which included learning new systems and processes and, perhaps the largest elephant in the room, the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Transition is never easy. People are creatures of habit; so re-training our staff to maximize found time in their day for growth strategies -versus just filling up the time with busy work- was a shift,” says Porcaro. “It took some time and we’re still learning.” Because Hightower was able to scale our business, our people have more time to focus on value driving activities. It’s ultimately a great thing for the business.

Tucci shares that the pandemic has stymied some of the opportunities to get to know other Hightower advisory businesses in-person but is hopeful for 2021. “We have made the best of a terrible situation,” he adds. “We have so much more time to focus on what really matters.”

Shifting more to the future, Tucci and Porcaro predict even more streamlining across the firm, as well as some potential M&A activity in the next year.

“Selling your business can be a very emotional process — it was for me — but since making the deal I’ve been as invigorated and energized as ever before because Hightower made us feel like we could still be entrepreneurs, and that’s what we love to do,” Tucci says.

Learn more about Lexington Wealth Management