Mercer buys $700 million Texas RIA

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. has acquired Lake Point Advisory Group, a $700 million registered investment adviser based in Dallas.

Founded in 2007 by Reid Johnson, Lake Point offers comprehensive wealth management to mass affluent and high-net-worth individuals, families and their businesses. Johnson and his team of 19 staff members will be joining Mercer Advisors, a Denver-based RIA aggregator with more than $32 billion in client assets.

“We are a fast-growing firm, and we needed the scale and adviser support necessary to onboard the strong stream of clients we add each month,” Johnson said in a prepared statement.

Johnson said he was introduced to Mercer vice chairman Dave Barton through Brad White, founder and chief executive of Epstein & White, a firm that Mercer acquired in March.

“I did meet with Dave Barton, many times, and was very impressed with their family-office business model and the opportunity to offer my clients additional services like in-house estate planning, tax return preparation and corporate trustee services,” Johnson explained. “Most importantly, however, was their ability to better resource my operation and take over those back-office activities that drained our resources. I knew I had found the right home for my clients, my staff and for me; providing me the opportunity to do full time what I love doing — marketing and driving new client flow. This is a great business combination for all concerned.”

Barton described Johnson as a “marketing genius, a growth savant.”

“His skill sets in building multichannel marketing strategies are rare and as excited as he is to join us, we are just as excited to add his expertise to our marketing platform,” Barton said. “Our combination is perfectly complementary.”

Mercer, which is among the largest RIA aggregators, is majority-owned by private equity investors Oak Hill Capital and Genstar Capital.