Mercer Advisors, the giant Denver-based RIA consolidator, this week announced that it had purchased two new firms for its stable—one in McLean, Va., the other in Rochester, N.Y. The two acquisitions will add more than half a billion to its assets under management.
Yesterday, the firm announced that it had bought Precipio Wealth, a Virginia firm that boasts $250 million in assets under management. And today, Mercer announced the acquisition of Mirsky Financial Management Corporation, a Rochester, N.Y., firm with $320 billion in assets under management that serves high-net-worth clientele.
Precipio was founded in 2009 by husband-and-wife team Edgar and Katherine Parrish. Edgar has worked for companies such as Shearson Lehman Brothers, PaineWebber/UBS and Merrill Lynch. Katherine Parrish has also worked for Merrill Lynch and PaineWebber/ UBS, and she worked for the Office of Management and Budget under the tenures of three different presidents in the ’80s and ’90s, according to her bio.
Katherine Parrish said in a media release that, besides the cultural fit, “The fact that Mercer Advisors can take over our back-office responsibilities; ever-increasing compliance duties; and offers in-house family office services such as estate planning, trust administration and tax were also driving factors in making our decision to join the Mercer Advisors.”
These firms “are looking to offload onerous and time-consuming back-office responsibilities which drains their time,” said Mercer in an email to Financial Advisor.
According to a Mercer press release, Mirsky was founded in 1999 by David B. Mirsky. Bernard L. Salamone is the firm’s executive vice president. Mirsky said in the press release that his firm was also attracted to the offer of back-office help provided by Mercer, as well as its family office model. Minsky also mentioned the importance of having a firm like Mercer help with career development.
Though he did not elaborate on that, it’s a common complaint among younger advisors that smaller firms don’t offer them clear-cut career tracks, which often leads to them leaving.
Mercer said in an email to Financial Advisor that year to date it has closed nine acquisitions and has three more closing by December 31. It said the total acquired assets under management for these 12 firms is about $6.6 billion. Two of the firms it said it was acquiring this year have more than a billion in assets: Dallas-based Quest Capital Management and Atlanta’s ACG Wealth. The firm said in its press release that it now has more than 55 offices, 360 employees and $36.5 billion in assets under management. This year's acquisitions will add about 8,000 clients, the firm said via email.
Mercer is known for a family office approach and for integrating the operations of its member firms, rather than letting them operate as far-flung boutiques.
Dave Welling, the CEO of Mercer Advisors, spoke to Financial Advisor in June about Mercer’s large footprint, and how the changes wrought by Covid—especially consumers’ forced march up the technology learning curve—mean that RIA firms will be operating different from now on, managing their real estate differently, hiring remote staffers in different cities … and in the end serving clients differently.