Mercer Advisors Inc. ("Mercer Advisors"), a national RIA firm based in Santa Barbara, announced the acquisition of Blue Moon Wealth Advisory LLC, provider of financial planning and investment management services with over $90 million of assets under management.
Blue Moon was founded by Michael J. Greiner, CFP, in 2014 and is located in Bellevue, Washington near Mercer's current Bellevue office. Mercer will consolidate offices as part of its efforts to expand its Pacific Northwest presence. Mr. Greiner states: "Mercer is a great fit for us, like Blue Moon they are a fee only firm that puts their clients first. It's all about doing what's best for our clients."
Dave Welling, CEO of Mercer, said, "Blue Moon's financial planning and comprehensive wealth approach is a strong cultural fit for us and we are excited to be continuing to build our presence in Washington state. Mike has built Blue Moon into a full-service provider of wealth management services and in partnership with Mercer we look forward to adding Mercer's scale and expertise in investments as well as our family office services such as estate and tax planning."
Mercer Vice Chairman David Barton, who leads the company's M&A activity, said, "A financial planner's greatest asset is time. Too often, smaller RIAs get weighed down managing non-core yet essential elements of the business: operations, systems, IT, investments, compliance, reporting, etc. While important to the business, these back-office tasks create distractions that often prevent planners from doing what they do best – growing their client base and providing valuable advice to existing clients. The Mercer team functioning across multiple departments, such as investments, marketing, training, accounting, IT, and compliance, can relieve advisors of middle- and back-office responsibilities and provide leverage for planners to expand and service their client base. Finally, our national sales force helps these new Mercer additions grow organically, that's our secret sauce."
This transaction increases Mercer's assets under management to approximately $11 billion, with 7,700 clients nationwide.
