CHARLOTTE, N.C.—When a healthcare company owner decides it’s time to explore a transaction, the phone call doesn’t go to a clinician. It goes to someone like Drew Taff.

Taff is a Director in the Investment Banking group at Fifth Third Securities, the capital markets arm of Fifth Third Bank—one of the 10 largest banks in the United States. His job, in plain terms: he helps healthcare company owners sell their businesses. And among the subsectors he covers, behavioral health has become one of the most active M&A categories in the country.

For ABA practice owners watching the consolidation wave sweep through their industry—private equity firms acquiring platforms at 12 to 15 times EBITDA, multi-state operators rolling up single-site clinics—Taff usually represents the other side of the table. The advisor who gets the seller to the right number.

From Rushville to Wall Street, by Way of Atlanta

Taff grew up in Rushville, Indiana—a town of roughly 6,000 people about an hour southeast of Indianapolis. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, one of the top-ranked undergraduate business programs in the country.

After graduating, he joined Coker Capital Advisors as an analyst in the firm’s Atlanta office. Coker was a boutique healthcare-focused investment bank—small team, senior-level attention on every deal, exclusively middle-market healthcare clients. Taff spent the majority of his early career there, working sell-side M&A transactions across physician practice management, behavioral health, laboratory services, and healthcare staffing.

In early 2018, Fifth Third Bancorp acquired Coker Capital, folding the team into its growing Investment Banking group. Taff made the transition and continued doing what he’d been doing—only now backed by a platform with over 125 investment bankers, six industry groups, eight offices, and the balance sheet of a $294 billion bank.

Ten-Plus Years of Healthcare Deals

Taff holds FINRA Series 79 and Series 63 licenses and has spent his entire professional career—more than ten years—focused exclusively on middle-market healthcare transactions. That singular focus matters in a field where deal structure, regulatory nuance, and payer dynamics vary wildly from one healthcare subsector to the next.

His team’s recent transaction sheet illustrates the range. In 2025 the group advised on transactions across several healthcare sub-sectors including infusion, orthopaedics, pain management, nephrology, HCIT, health systems, and behavioral health. In January 2025, Fifth Third Securities served as the exclusive financial advisor to the Neurology Institute of San Antonio and Vista Infusions in their acquisition by Vivo Infusion—a deal that expanded Vivo’s footprint to nearly 90 ambulatory infusion centers across 15 states.

These aren’t behavioral health deals specifically. But they reflect the kind of complex, multi-stakeholder transactions that define the healthcare middle market—and the same mechanics apply when an ABA platform decides to explore a sale or recapitalization.

Why ABA Owners Should Care About Healthcare IB

Behavioral health M&A deal volume rose more than 42% in 2025, with 104 publicly announced transactions. ABA and autism therapy platforms continue to command the highest multiples in the behavioral health space—routinely trading at 12 to 15 times EBITDA for scaled, multi-state operations with strong clinical governance and diversified payer relationships. The 2024 sale of Behavioral Innovations for approximately $300 million at roughly 15 times EBITDA set a benchmark.

Fifth Third’s Healthcare Investment Banking platform—built through the acquisitions of Coker Capital in 2018 and Hammond Hanlon Camp in 2020—is one of the largest bank-affiliated healthcare advisory groups in the country. The leadership of the healthcare team alone has closed hundreds of transactions creating billions in value for founders and sponsors alike.

For ABA practice owners considering a transaction—whether that’s a full sale, a majority or minority recapitalization with a private equity sponsor, or a strategic partnership—the choice of financial advisor shapes the outcome. Taff and the Fifth Third healthcare team represent the institutional end of that advisory spectrum: deep healthcare specialization, a national buyer network, and the capital markets infrastructure to run a competitive process.

The Quiet Side of the Deal

Investment bankers don’t typically show up in the ABA trade press. They’re not on conference panels debating supervision ratios or Medicaid reimbursement rates. But when the biggest deals in the industry close—when a multi-clinic ABA platform changes hands or a PE firm writes a nine-figure check—someone like Taff is in the room, running the process.

In an industry where consolidation is accelerating and valuations remain elevated, knowing who’s advising the deals isn’t optional intelligence for practice owners. It’s the kind of information that determines whether you’re reading about someone else’s exit—or planning your own.

CONTACT & RESOURCES

Fifth Third Healthcare Investment Banking

Profile: investment-banking.53.com/us/nc/charlotte/drew-taff

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andrew-taff-28b4134b

Healthcare IB: 53.com/commercial-banking/capital-markets/investment-banking/healthcare

Credentials

B.S. Finance, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University

FINRA Series 79 (Investment Banking Representative)

FINRA Series 63 (Uniform Securities Agent)

10+ years exclusively in middle-market healthcare M&A

Fifth Third Investment Banking Platform

125+ investment bankers across six industry groups

Offices in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Memphis, Nashville, New York, San Diego

Built through acquisitions of Coker Capital (2018) and Hammond Hanlon Camp/H2C (2020)

Leadership has closed hundreds of transactions creating billions in value

Fifth Third Bank: ~$294B in assets (9th largest U.S. bank following 2026 Comerica merger)