Mercer Advisors Expands in New England With $1.5B Charter Oak Deal

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Mercer Global Advisors, the Denver, Colo.-based registered concern advisor with $98 cardinal successful lawsuit assets, has acquired employee-owned Charter Oak Capital Management, a Portsmouth, N.H.-based wealthiness absorption steadfast with $1.5 cardinal successful assets nether management. The acquisition expands Mercer Advisors’ beingness successful New England for clients successful New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine.

Charter Oak, founded successful 2002, is led by partners Emma Bean, Todd Cesca, Sarah Serling, Jeffrey Troiano, Lena Wyand and Karen Zaramba. Bean, who became a spouse successful 2024, said the steadfast decided it needed a larger, scaled spouse to bolster clients’ services specified arsenic property and taxation planning.

“As we had a mates of partners approaching retirement, we conscionable benignant of took a measurement backmost and said, ‘Where should we spell from here, what’s signifier 2 of Charter Oak, and however tin we proceed to service our clients successful a mode that’s truly meaningful and besides make opportunities and maturation plans for our team?” she said. “What each six of america partners, due to the fact that each six of america are besides advisors, recognized is that determination were truthful galore different pieces of the wealthiness absorption puzzle that we wanted to offer.”

Bean said the institution had worked with M&A advisory and concern slope Hue Partners to compile a database of 12 firms, past honed it down to three, and yet chose Mercer. None of Charter Oak’s advisors volition discontinue successful the contiguous aftermath of the transaction, but much of the firm’s advisors volition summation equity successful the larger Mercer entity, with others having the enactment to bargain in, she said.

“We person employees that person been with america implicit 20 years, and truthful having an accidental to either beryllium granted oregon acquisition commercialized banal was decidedly portion of the speech passim the full process,” she said.

Charter Oak, which has 11 advisors, meshed good with Mercer’s enactment team, Bean said. But the partners besides liked the thought of being a cardinal portion of establishing Mercer’s beingness successful New England.

“The marketplace was truly important,” she said. “We felt similar we could beryllium the archetypal ample squad up successful this bluish New England region, and that was a bully small cherry connected top.”

Charter Oak volition proceed to custody with Fidelity Investments, which has the bulk of its clients, and Charles Schwab, portion besides being unfastened to Mercer’s different custodial options, which see Raymond James and Goldman Sachs.

Mercer, which was founded successful 1985, has grown to much than 110 locations. Over 50% of its employees are equity owners, with backstage equity firms Oak Hill Capital, Genstar Capital, and Altas Partners owning the bulk of the firm. 

Charter Oak’s “established beingness on the New Hampshire seacoast expands our scope successful an important New England marketplace and adds a talented, next-generation squad committed to broad planning,” Dave Welling, CEO of Mercer, said successful a statement.