Mercer announces two deals in as many days

RIA aggregator acquired $495M Paragon Wealth Strategies and $95M Brighton Financial Planning.

Mercer Global Advisors, a Denver-based aggregator of registered investment advisors, announced Tuesday that it had acquired Paragon Wealth Management of Jacksonville, Florida, and followed that Wednesday with the news that it had purchased Brighton Financial Planning, which operates in New Jersey and South Carolina.

Paragon, which was founded in 2008 by Jonathan Castle and Michelle Ash, oversees $495 million in assets for more than 400 clients. The firm services clients as a team, rather than as individual advisors, in order to better understand and communicate with clients. The firm’s shareholders include Scott Snider and Ian Aquilar.

“We were looking to join a national firm that added not only scale and additional support for our team, but also added new services that we could share with our clients,” Ash said in a statement. “In this regard, Mercer Advisors was a perfect fit for us.”

[More: Mercer acquires $630M North Carolina RIA]

Brighton, a fee-only RIA, was founded more than 25 years ago. It’s led by John Middleton and manages $95 million in assets for clients.

“The fact that Mercer Advisors can support me and my team with additional resources, take over middle and back-office responsibilities, and provide my clients with estate planning advice, documentation and administration, in addition to tax return services, made them the perfect partner for us,” Middleton said in a statement. “They presented a one-stop shop solution for all my clients’ financial needs.”

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. has 80 locations across the U.S. and manages more than $50 billion in client assets.

[More: Mercer raises $1 billion in recapitalization deal, bringing in new private equity backer]