Mercer Global Advisors scoops up $800 million Atlanta RIA

Mercer Global Advisors announced on Tuesday that it is acquiring Kays Financial Advisory, an $800 million Atlanta-based registered investment adviser.

The transaction expands the Georgia footprint of Denver-based Mercer, which has more than 45 locations across the United States and $24 billion in client assets.

The deal also marks the third sizable acquisition over the first two business days of the new year, following Hightower’s purchase of Bel Air Investment Advisors, an $8 billion Los Angeles-based RIA, and SVB Financial Corp.’s acquisition of Boston Private Financial Holdings to create a $17.7 billion wealth management enterprise.

Mercer Chief Executive Dave Welling celebrated the deal for Kays Financial, including the addition of Scott Kays, who founded the firm in 1985.

“We look at this as the formation of a strategic relationship that will enable us to serve clients for years to come,” Welling said in a statement.

“When Scott approached me about the possibility of joining Mercer Advisors, of course I was delighted,” he said. “Scott and his partners have built a fantastic and growing RIA, rare in these times when many RIAs are struggling with organic growth. The combination of our two firms presents a formidable juggernaut in Georgia and the Southeast.”

For his part, Kays said that joining Mercer is about leveraging the kind of scale that is becoming a staple of modern financial planning.

“We are committed to serving our clients with excellence,” he said in the statement. “Part of that duty includes making sure their needs, and families’ needs, are taken care of for decades to come, and beyond my business lifetime. As a result, it became clear we needed to partner with an established national firm that could ensure continued high-quality customer service in perpetuity and present our staff with career development opportunities.”