Mercer Advisors has acquired ACG Wealth, an Atlanta-based registered investment advisor with about $1.3 billion in client assets under management. The deal expands Mercer’s Georgia footprint and allows ACG to boost its middle- and back-office capabilities.
ACG, which was founded in 2002 by Jeffrey T. Shaver and Joseph “Jody” P. Young Jr., serves high-net-worth individuals, families and their businesses. Shaver and Young will join Mercer, along with their 17 staff members.
Shaver said his firm was looking to build out its middle- and back-office support, when the team realized they could join a firm like Mercer, which already had much of the services and support they needed.
“Dave explained we could build it ourselves, but why risk failure when you can join a national player that had achieved proof of concept,” Shaver said, referring to Mercer Vice Chairman and Head of M&A Dave Barton. “As Dave Barton stated, ‘Why build it when you can join it,’ and we agreed.”
Cambridge International Partners advised ACG Wealth on the transaction.
The deal follows Mercer’s acquisition in October of Lake Point Advisory Group, a wealth management firm with about $700 million in assets under management based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Mercer also announced two acquisitions during the last two weeks of September, including Miller Advisors, a wealth management firm located in Kirkland, Wash., with about $240 million in AUM. Mercer also acquired Quest Capital Management, a Dallas-based firm that has about $1.5 billion in managed assets across 660 clients. Earlier this year, Mercer acquired AFI Wealth Strategies, a Green Bay, Wis.–based firm with $240 million in AUM.
Backed by Oak Hill Capital and Genstar Capital, Mercer has been growing quickly this year, so far closing seven deals representing approximately $4.8 billion in AUM, following a dizzying year of deal-making in 2020. Some of the top priorities for innovation shared by CEO Dave Welling have been in estate and tax planning, areas ripe for technological disruption in the wealth management industry. The firm now has over $33 billion in total assets.