United Community in Georgia to buy investment advisor

United Community Banks in Blairsville, Georgia, has agreed to buy FinTrust Capital Partners, an investment advisor in Greenville, South Carolina.

The $18.6 billion-asset United Community said in a press release Thursday that it expects to complete the deal in the third quarter. It did not disclose the price it will pay.

FinTrust has $2 billion of assets under management across its advisory, retirement planning and brokerage businesses. The firm also has offices in Anderson, South Carolina, and the Georgia cities of Athens and Macon.

The acquisition should accelerate United Community’s recent expansion in the investment advisory space, Lynn Harton, the company’s chairman and CEO, said in the release.

United Community acquired Three Shores Bancorp in Orlando, Florida, last year. Three Shores was the parent of the $1.9 billion-asset Seaside National Bank & Trust, which gave United nearly $900 million of assets under advisement.

“Our investment advisory business has grown organically over the past several years and was expanded in 2020 with a broader product offering with the acquisition of Seaside,” Harton said. Adding FinTrust “significantly increases our advisory assets under management and adds an established team of professionals.”

FinTrust will become an operating unit of United Community. Certain businesses that are operating under the Seaside brand will be combined with FinTrust and use the FinTrust brand, the company said.