Mercer Advisors, Osaic deepen AI bets with Arch and Nitrogen deals

Mercer Advisors and Osaic are handing more manual work to specialized AI vendors, in a pair of partnerships aimed at stretching capacity at two of the country’s largest wealth firms.

Mercer Advisors, the Denver-based mega-RIA with $114 billion in client assets, has signed a multiyear partnership with Arch, which builds AI-powered infrastructure for private markets. The companies say Arch’s platform has cut Mercer’s cost of running client alternative investments by 40% and saves the firm more than 7,000 hours a year.

Separately, Auburn, California-based Nitrogen said Osaic has approved its full suite of advisor products, AI functions included, for nearly 10,000 financial professionals.

Arch streamlines Mercer's private markets operations

Traditionally, private investments generate paperwork that public securities don’t: capital calls, distribution notices, K-1 tax forms and general partner updates, usually scattered across separate fund administrator portals. Arch collects those documents, converts them into structured data and routes it to the teams and systems that act on it. K-1s go to each client’s accountant, capital calls get processed and figures flow into Mercer’s reporting tools.

Read more: Kelly Park Capital streamlines private market access with PRISM 2.0

Advisors and clients receive alerts on distributions, general partner commentary and news about underlying portfolio companies.

“Arch has become a key component of our private investments platform and operations, bringing critical investment data into our central advisory platform and giving advisors and clients real-time visibility into private investments, much like they already have with public markets,” said Don Calcagni, Mercer’s chief investment officer.

The arrangement also supports Mercer’s acquisition strategy. Each firm it buys brings its own mix of private holdings and its own way of managing them, including complex family-office portfolios. Arch lets Mercer pull those assets into one operating and reporting model tied to the firm’s Aspen Investing platform, which offers in-house direct indexing. Mercer says prospective partner firms and clients cite its private investment capabilities as a reason to join.

Nitrogen’s tech suite frees up Osaic advisors

Nitrogen announced that Osaic advisors can now use its Risk Center, Research Center, Income Center, Tax Center, Legacy Center and Insurance Center modules, with the ability to adopt the products that fit their practices and add others later.

Tying the suite together is Nucleus, Nitrogen’s agentic AI engine. Unveiled in February this year, the software carries out multistep tasks rather than simply answering questions, only completing them once an advisor signs off. Advisors can use it to convert client statements into portfolios, build retirement income illustrations and turn tax returns into visual insights for client meetings.

“Every hour an advisor spends on manual work is an hour they can’t spend with a client or prospect,” said Dan Zitting, Nitrogen’s chief executive.

Read more: How advisors can reclaim time to drive revenue by $270K, according to Fidelity

Osaic’s sign-off rested partly on governance. Nitrogen says it is the first known wealthtech company to earn ISO/IEC 42001 certification, the international standard for managing AI systems responsibly.

“Our financial professionals want AI they can put to work right away, and our job is to make sure it meets the standards their clients expect,” said Sayee Bellamkonda, Osaic’s chief AI and technology officer.