Hightower links up with Bay Area independent firm

NEW YORK, July 22 (Reuters) - HighTower Advisors, a firm that snaps up financial advisers breaking away from big brokerages, said on Thursday it acquired a Silicon Valley wealth management team that was already independent.

Chicago-based HighTower joined forces with Three Bridge Wealth Advisors, a Menlo Park, California, firm formed by principals Eric Thurber, Fred Molfino and Brett Sharkey last August after leaving Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.

The three men, who worked together for a decade at Smith Barney, led a team that managed $740 million of assets and specialize in working with venture capital and private equity investors.

Three Bridge helped to embody the breakaway broker movement last year, when thousands of advisers left big brokerages like Morgan Stanley to join or form independent practices.

Many independents have thrived running their own businesses, but a small number of breakaways are starting to return to bigger companies where they focus their time on working with clients. (To read an earlier Reuters interview with Three Bridge's Thurber, double click on [ID:nN19234057].) (Reporting by Joseph A. Giannone; Editing by Derek Caney)