Why Mercer Advisors?
Why Come to Mercer Advisors for Your Next Chapter?
Our family office services, like in-house estate planning and tax planning and returns, are big reasons why many owners come to us when considering selling an RIA.
We offer more services and expertise than most RIAs in the industry—including financial planning, estate planning, investment planning, tax planning and preparation, and corporate trustees—all under one roof.
You get a team of in-house investment strategists, CPAs1, estate planning attorneys2, and trust specialists to help manage your clients’ wealth, so you can offer more high-quality services than ever before. In fact, each Mercer Advisors client with more than $1.5 million in assets under our management receives a complimentary estate plan.
From the very beginning, Mercer Advisors has held itself to the highest of standards to always act in our clients’ best interests. We have, and always will, act in a fiduciary capacity.
While most wealth management companies choose only one type of valuation method for RIA acquisitions, we triangulate three methods to derive an industry-leading offer.
That includes discounted cash flow analysis, multiple of net income, and multiple of revenue. This gives you a 360-degree view of your business and a competitive offer that you can feel confident about when selling an RIA. With dozens of acquisitions under our belts, we understand how to complete deals tailored to the goals of each firm.
Mercer Advisors’ scale helps you do the life planning for yourself that you’ve been doing for your clients. We take the middle- and back-office burden off your plate, allowing you more time to focus on your passions.
If you want to keep advising clients, we’ll enable you to focus 100% on meeting their financial needs. That’s because our teams handle all activities, such as compliance, IT, accounting, HR, marketing, and legal, so you can do more of what you love, with less administrative burden. If you’d prefer to design a life after ownership, we’ll help you with RIA succession planning, too.
Like most RIAs that join us, you’ll benefit from our growth engines, which means you’ll get more business and enjoy it more fully.
That’s because we’re one of the fastest growing wealth managers in the industry, so you get more opportunities coming through the door. The best part is, you don’t have to spend time on business development, because our dedicated salesforce does it for you. As a national firm we receive referrals from the national exclusive referral programs: Schwab, TD Ameritrade, E*Trade, and Fidelity.
Our goal is to triple the amount of business the RIA’s that join us handled, while allowing them to focus on the part of the business they love.
We offer professional fulfillment and leadership opportunities for you and your employees, so you’re well taken care of today and tomorrow.
Our size and scale provide clear career paths, with robust training programs and attractive compensation packages. Our advisors have a path to progress up the ladder, from office manager, to regional director, to managing director managing multiple regions across the country. You and your employees can enjoy full careers here at Mercer Advisors.
Our dedicated Integration Team has integrated many RIAs like yours into Mercer Advisors, so you can trust the transition to Mercer Advisors’ systems and practices to happen seamlessly.
Because we’re an integrator, not an aggregator, we don’t just buy organizations without blending the client experience. We think of ourselves as the ”Mayo Clinic” of wealth management. We develop best practices in each role, department, branch, and region, then bring them to everyone at all levels and locations. This enables our financial planners, accountants, lawyers, and other professionals in all our offices to offer your clients the same high-level experience of doing business on a personal level.
Our digital client onboarding process creates an easy and seamless transition from first contact through digital processing, with convenient features such as DocuSign digital document signing, streamlined account opening paperwork, and account registration.
It’s all supported by our robust technology systems, including:
- Salesforce, featuring an Executive Dashboard that aggregates data to give you a full view of the business
- eMoney financial planning software and its single-sign-on client portal, which have the same interface to ensure ease of use for you and your clients
- Envestnet, the well-known turnkey asset management platform (TAMP)
All of these systems are overseen by our dedicated IT department.
With Mercer Advisors, you can rest assured that your clients will get high-quality advisory assistance with a unified customer experience that makes it easy for them, and for you, to do business.
Alternate Style #1
Alternate Style #2
Offer More Services To Your Clients
Get A Fair And Competitive Valuation For Your Business
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Most clients want to know that you’re still going to be their advisor. We help you ensure them that you’ll be there for them, with even more resources and services, such as financial planning, estate planning, and tax planning and returns, to help them meet their financial goals. Once they understand that, they’re ready to move forward.
There isn’t a quick and easy answer to this question. The value of an RIA firm is generally based on its cash flow, growth potential, and risk. Multiples are one thing, but deal structure is just as important. The best way to answer that for your situation is to speak with us confidentially and enable us to make a proper assessment.
You should consider this now so that you have a plan that helps you avoid uncertainty and unforeseen events such as market shifts and personal health changes. With a plan in place, you’re in charge of any transition rather than at its mercy should something unexpected occur.
There are four main reasons:
- It’s good business practice. Planning for business continuity/succession does not have to be strictly about stopping or giving up. Having a plan that mitigates operational risks, particularly key person risk, could enable you to keep going and extend the continuity of care your clients want.
- The SEC expects RIA firms to have a robust business continuity plan as part of a firm’s fiduciary obligation. In addition, the NASAA specifically addresses disability or death of key personnel in its rules 203(a)-1A and 2002 411(c)-1A).
- If you’re a small shop and you don’t have a plan, clients may look elsewhere because they’re concerned about what will happen to their money if something happens to you.
- When searching for an RIA to work with, potential customers may not even consider you if they find out that you don’t have a succession plan. It’s a risk they don’t want to take.
Even though you’ve prepared for someone at your RIA to take over for you, things might change by the time that comes to pass. Your firm might become too expensive by the time you exit. Your exit timing may no longer align with that of your proposed successor. Your successor may no longer be able to or interested in becoming an owner when the time comes. All of these are reasons to consider an external strategic partner instead.
Financial acquirers are typically investors that are looking for the financial return they can get when acquiring an RIA. What they’re purchasing is the RIA’s expected future earnings.
Strategic acquirers, on the other hand, are interested in how an RIA fits with their business objectives for their company and their clients. They’re not just acquiring an RIA for revenue. They’re acquiring an RIA because the firm’s philosophy, strategies, and ways of doing business fit with their own.
Mercer Advisors is a strategic acquirer. That means we’re looking to acquire RIAs that operate as fiduciaries and share our commitment to serving clients. Our strategic advisors continuously monitor client accounts to ensure that every security or asset allocation we recommend is in their best interest. Our advisors are committed to clients, to our wealth management philosophy, and to ensuring our clients get the right strategy, plan, and attention according to their needs. If this matches your philosophy for running your RIA, we’d love to talk with you.
