Office address: 2400 Lakeview Parkway, Suite 550, Alpharetta, GA 30009
Website: meritfinancialadvisors.com
Year established: 1998
Company type: financial services
Employees: 350+
Expertise: wealth management, financial planning, retirement planning, estate planning, insurance planning, life transitions, investment management, business succession planning, trust management, RIA advisory services
Parent company: N/A
Key people: Rick Kent (CEO), Kay Lynn Mayhue (president), Chrissy Lee (COO), Brian Andrew (CIO), John Cote (chief growth officer), Tait Lane and Zach Mersberger (managing principals)
Financing status: private equity-backed (minority stake)
Merit Financial Advisors is an Alpharetta-based national RIA that helps clients work through major life transitions. The company offers wealth management, insurance, estate, and retirement planning. Merit has more than 350 team members and manages over $24 billion in assets across 55+ locations as of January 1, 2026.
Rick Kent founded Merit Financial Group, LLC (dba Merit Financial Advisors) in Alpharetta in 1998. It was built to help people through retirement, divorce, and widowhood on a servant-leadership philosophy. That people-first approach shaped how Merit would grow and operate for years to come.
Merit Financial Advisors spent its first two decades growing steadily as a regional company. That changed in 2020 when Wealth Partners Capital Group and HGGC's Aspire Holdings, two private equity firms focused on RIA investments, took a minority stake.
The outside capital unlocked a serious acquisition strategy, and by 2023, Merit had grown to $8 billion in assets across 40 offices. One early deal was WealthPlan LLC in De Pere, which added $145 million to the company's book.
Merit then joined Fidelity's WAS referral program in 2025 and closed 13 acquisitions by year's end:
Wealth Partners Capital Group and HGGC's Aspire Holdings sold their minority stake in Merit in July 2025 after holding the position since 2019. In their place, Constellation Wealth Capital, a private equity firm, took a minority position of less than 40 percent.
That same year, InvestmentNews named Merit Financial Advisors its RIA Firm of the Year for the second consecutive time. CEO Rick Kent was also named an excellence awardee for the Park Avenue Securities Award for CEO of the Year at the 2025 InvestmentNews Awards ceremony.
Merit Financial Advisors doubled its assets to over $24 billion in 2025 through 13 acquisitions and a 10 percent organic growth rate. The company set its sights on around 15 acquisitions, including its first potential "transformational" deal in the $3 billion to $8 billion AUM range.
Merit centers its services on life transitions, from financial planning to business succession:
Merit Financial Advisors also serves high-net-worth clients with complex business and real estate needs. It has grown into virtual planning, education content, and new regional markets.
Merit runs on a servant-leadership model built from the top down. CEO Rick Kent designed the firm to empower his team to grow. That approach is grounded in integrity, respect, and humility at every level.
Culture fit is just as important as financial performance to Merit. To prove it, Merit Financial Advisors once walked away from a deal over poor leadership, according to President Kay Lynn Mayhue. Since then, it has used a third-party "360 light" assessment to vet M&A candidates.
That people-first thinking also shows up in Merit's team makeup. Over 53 percent of its staff is female, with four female-founded firms acquired since 2017. About 80 percent of its advisors also hold a direct ownership stake in the company.
Rick Kent, a CFP, ChFC, and AIF, is the CEO and founder of Merit Financial Advisors. He worked as an entrepreneur and built several businesses before founding Merit in 1998. Kent has since driven Merit's growth strategy and led the firm through more than 50 acquisitions.
Kent is supported by a seasoned leadership team that oversees investing, operations, and growth across Merit Financial Advisors:
This group includes former entrepreneurs who previously built and scaled their own advisory businesses before joining Merit.
Merit marked its 2026 dealmaking debut by using the SSC Wealth acquisition to deepen tax-focused planning for complex clients. By buying SSC Wealth, the wealth arm of SSC CPAs + Advisors, it picked up about $260 million in assets and a steady stream of tax-focused households.
That partnership gives Merit Financial Advisors deeper tax expertise, which should make its planning sharper for business owners and high‑net‑worth families.
Building on that 2026 dealmaking debut, Merit closed 2025 with back-to-back InvestmentNews RIA Firm of the Year wins. It doubled assets that year by adding 13 firms while still reaching a 10 percent organic growth rate.
This blend of steady acquisitions and multiple advisor growth tracks, including bank partnerships and custodial referrals, positions Merit to keep expanding its reach and services for clients.
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