Mercer Advisors acquired Quest Capital Management, a Dallas-based wealth management firm with about $1.5 billion in assets across 660 clients. The deal, announced today, represents Mercer’s second transaction this week. The RIA said Monday it had acquired Miller Advisors, a Kirkland, Wash.–based firm with about 200 clients and $240 million in assets under management. Miller Advisors is the ninth woman-led firm to join Mercer.
Quest Capital Management, founded in 1987, is managed by its six shareholders, including President Kalita Blessing; Chief Operating Officer Dennis Moore; and Wealth Advisors Robert Cox, Chandler Ferguson, Carl Kunhardt and Chris Young. The firm’s shareholders and 17 staff members will join the Mercer team.
“As a fiduciary to our clients, we have an obligation to ensure their needs are met for generations to come,” Blessing said in a statement. “With that in mind, we needed to consider partnering with a national firm that could deliver on that promise beyond our lifetimes. My partners and I have no intention of exiting our practices anytime soon but solving for succession sooner rather than later brings immediate benefits to our clients by accessing Mercer Advisors’ in-house family office services such as estate planning and tax return preparation. This merger will also provide career development opportunities for our staff beyond what we could offer and that is most important to us.”
Backed by Oak Hill Capital and Genstar Capital, Mercer has been growing quickly this year, 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 $32 billion in total assets.