Smith & Howard Wealth Management

Smith & Howard Wealth Management

Smith & Howard Wealth Management was established in 1971 as the investment advisory affiliate of Smith & Howard, an Atlanta-based certified public accounting firm. The firm's footprint remains concentrated in the Southeast, serving a client base of privately held business owners, executives, and families whose financial lives are interwoven with their operating companies. CEO John Lucht oversees a practice built on the thesis that meaningful wealth management begins inside the tax return — a model that distinguishes CPA-firm RIAs from broker-dealer or private-bank advisory platforms. Asset allocation is customized per client, spanning equity and fixed-income portfolios, alternatives, and private investment opportunities sourced through the accounting firm's business networks. The firm emphasizes tax-aware portfolio construction, often layering municipal bond ladders, direct indexing, and qualified small business stock planning atop standard model allocations. Deal flow arrives through the accounting partnership's relationships with regional investment banks, private equity groups, and commercial lenders active in the Southeastern middle market. The advisory team operates alongside Smith & Howard's audit, tax, and advisory professionals, drawing on roughly 150 firm-wide staff across the Atlanta headquarters. While the wealth management practice does not publicly disclose its assets under management or exact team size, it operates under the regulatory umbrella of the parent CPA firm's SEC-registered investment advisor. The firm has expanded its presence through the accounting practice's broader growth, which has included mergers with smaller Southeastern CPA firms to deepen its regional coverage. CPAs are the original embedded fiduciary, and Smith & Howard Wealth Management runs on that premise — every investment recommendation is tested against a tax projection that the same firm prepares. That dual relationship creates a structural moat that standalone RIAs cannot replicate without buying an accounting practice.