Merit Financial taps Heather Zack to lead private wealth push

Merit Financial Advisors has hired Heather Zack, a planning specialist who built high-net-worth programs at Commonwealth Financial Network and Carson, to lead a new private wealth unit designed to help its advisors win larger, more complex client relationships.

Zack takes a newly created role as executive vice president and head of private wealth at the Atlanta-based firm, which reports more than $32.92 billion in assets across more than 70 offices nationwide. She reports to Alex Hansen, Merit’s chief advisor success officer, and is based in the Boston area.

The move adds an organic growth engine to a firm that's been active in dealmaking. Merit says it has completed 63 acquisitions to date, a run that has included its push into California with the roughly $900 million Bridgeway Group in September.

Zack’s brief is to work with advisors to find opportunities among existing clients and prospects, then build the specialist bench needed to pursue them. That includes outside relationships for trust and estate services, private banking and philanthropic planning.

Merit also wants a framework for serving clients at different levels of wealth, from business owners approaching a liquidity event to executives managing sudden wealth and multigenerational families focused on legacy planning.

“Advisors often have relationships with individuals and families who represent tremendous opportunities for growth, but they may not have access to all the specialized resources needed to pursue those opportunities with confidence,” Zack said in a statement.

A planning-first career in high-net-worth wealth

An attorney by training, Zack spent 14 years at Commonwealth, where she served on and later led the advanced planning team before becoming director of high net worth services and helping establish the firm’s high-net-worth offering.

She moved to Carson in September last year as senior vice president and private client services solutions strategist, co-leading the firm’s private client business, building its ultra-high-net-worth infrastructure and assembling multifamily office partnerships.

At Merit, she plans to use the Ultra High Net Worth Institute’s 10 Domains of Family Wealth framework to map the services sophisticated families need and where Merit’s offering currently falls short.

"From navigating business transitions and complicated family dynamics to philanthropy and preparing the next generation to be thoughtful stewards of wealth, this is the work I love," Zack said in a LinkedIn post announcing the move. 

"I’m especially excited to collaborate with advisors I’ve known and respected for years, and to help create the expertise, resources, and partnerships that allow them to tackle even the most complex client needs," she said.

Read more: Why high net worth clients need to rethink time, health, and wealth

Why RIAs are moving upmarket

A recent report by Cerulli found that enterprise RIAs now control 58% of RIA channel assets, up 18 percentage points since 2020, and that the segment has grown at a 20% compound annual rate over five years.

As consolidation dulls the edges that used to make firms competitive, services have become the battleground, and enterprise RIAs need more than scale to compete. Among the large RIAs in Cerulli’s research, 60% offer trust and estate planning.

“Cerulli expects more RIAs to provide all-encompassing services as they seek to support growth and capture fee revenue that might otherwise go to third-party providers,” said Stephen Caruso, a director at the firm.

Read more: Why investment-only advice is no longer enough for high-net-worth families

In Schwab's latest independent advisor outlook Study, 76% of respondents said they already offer philanthropic or charitable planning, while 66% offer family governance and multigenerational planning. A large minority, 43%, named holistic advice as a top differentiator when it comes to winning new clients.