A Connecticut-based RIA with about $412 in property beneath advisement is becoming a member of Mercer Advisors, increasing Mercer’s presence within the Northeast.
Benchmark Wealth Administration is predicated in Outdated Lyme, Conn., and was fashioned in 2007 by means of the mixture of the twin practices of founders/advisors Richard Stout and Thomas Britt. Benchmark makes a speciality of monetary planning for high-net-worth people and retirees with a guide of enterprise of about 300 shoppers.
The duo was on the lookout for a accomplice who would assist them prolong the “white-glove” expertise they provide shoppers. They believed that Mecer supplied the most effective probability so as to add providers reminiscent of property planning and tax steerage. DeVoe & Firm represented Benchmark through the acquisition.
Mercer CEO Dave Welling mentioned it was “straightforward” to see that the Benchmark staff would match into Mercer and was happy that the acquisition would bolster the agency’s “rising presence” in Connecticut and the Northeast area.
In keeping with the Mercer Advisors website, the agency additionally has Connecticut workplaces in Westport, Woodbridge and West Hartford, in addition to a number of different Northeast areas in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, amongst different areas.
Denver-based Mercer was based in 1985 and is majority-owned by personal fairness corporations Oak Hill Capital, Genstar Capital and Atlas Companions. It has roughly 1,150 workers, $63 billion in shopper property and operates nationwide by means of over 90 workplace areas.
Mercer broke into the personal markets in July with the launch of its Aspen Companions platform, a proprietary platform to ship institutional-grade entry with curated choices to certified particular person traders (with funding minimums of $100,000).
The agency constructed the platform together with personal market fintech Opto Investments and desires to work with prime personal fairness, enterprise capital, personal credit score, actual property and infrastructure managers to “construct institutional-grade portfolios for our shoppers, with out including exorbitant charges or expense ratios,” in accordance with Mercer Advisors President Daniel Gourvitch.
Mercer has been an energetic acquirer within the trade for the previous a number of years, having grown its property by 300% since 2017. 2022 was its most energetic yr on document (with 20 offers totaling about $13 billion in transacted property). Earlier this yr, the agency acquired MDK Personal Wealth Administration, a $2.5 billion Seattle-based agency, to spice up its Northwest presence.
In February, the agency added 5 new executives to its M&A accomplice improvement and integration groups to spice up its inorganic development methods, together with Andy Burgess, a former regional director of enterprise improvement at NewEdge Advisors, who joined Mercer’s M&A accomplice improvement staff as a vice chairman.
In Might, the agency promoted Martine Lellis from chief expertise officer to principal of M&A accomplice improvement to assist deal with the rising variety of RIA acquisition targets. She studies to Dave Barton, who stepped down as Mercer CEO in 2017 to particularly give attention to M&A in a vice chairman position.
Mercer additionally employed Gün Keresteci as its chief monetary officer earlier this yr. He beforehand labored as world head of finance at McKinsey & Firm.