Merit Financial has acquired Marietta, Georgia-based wealth management firm Yeomans Consulting Group, Inc., further expanding its partnership with custodian SEI.
Merit works with three major custodians – Schwab, Fidelity and SEI. Tyler Vernon, managing principal at Merit, told InvestmentNews that Yeomans is the third SEI firm that the company has closed since December 2024. “We’re under LOI [letter of intent] with another one,” he said.
“We’re trying to create a business within a business,” Vernon added. “We’re really leaning into SEI and helping create a more robust partnership.”
Yeomans, which was founded in 1985, had approximately $434 million in assets under management at the transaction’s close. President Nic Yeomans, whose father founded the firm, told InvestmentNews that the company’s 11-strong team will be moving over to Merit. This includes two lead advisors – Nic and his son Randy, three relationship financial advisors, as well as operations and support staff.
Both Randy and Nic will assume new roles as wealth manager and partner.
Marietta is about a 35-minute drive north of Atlanta, and Yeomans says that local wealth management is booming. This is thanks to a combination of “Old Mariettan” families, as well as baby boomers that have downsized and moved to the area and young families that have moved to the area for the schools and its strong economy.
“It has evolved from a commuter town that was very middle class to a lively place that is very desirable to be,” he added. Easily commutable to Atlanta, the historic city is also close to major firms such as Lockheed Martin and educational institutions like Kennesaw University and Georgia Tech.
As part of Merit, Yeomans Consulting will keep its office in a pre-1900 building two blocks from the city’s historic Marietta Square.
Merit, which is headquartered in nearby Alpharetta, has consolidated its local offices, and with the Yeomans Consulting acquisition, will have four in the Atlanta area.
The deal for Yeomans Consulting comes hot on the heels of last month’s acquisition of Newtown, Pennsylvania-based GlennCo and also marks Merit’s fifty-sixth acquisition. Merit recently expanded into the Detroit metropolitan area with the acquisition of former Commonwealth practice TL Financial Group.
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