Page 24 - Investment Advisor April/May 2023

Cover Story

Investment Advisor: Could you tell us about Mercer
Advisors’ family wealth business?
Jeremiah Barlow: High-net-worth is our core business, and we
have an ultra-high-net-worth multi-family office component,
as well. They don’t necessarily blend together for us. We have
a very conscientious segmentation of the two.
Mercer Advisors is a $45 billion assets-under-management
firm as a whole, and 75% of that represents the high-net-
worth, ultra-high-net-worth and family office clientele — with
about 50% … in the high-net-worth realm and about 25% in
ultra-high-net-worth, multi-family office.
Mercer as a whole … has about 250 [advisors]. In support
of that, we also have a 125-person team of experts exclusively
focused on these high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth
individuals. This 125-person expert team includes estate-

“ What we find is that the clients in
this space really want that kind of

one-team approach, mostly because
a lot of the time you’re dealing with
a family or multiple generations.
They’re really looking for someone

who can connect the dots around
those areas of planning — tax, estate,
investments and intergenerational
wealth transfer.” Abby Fisher (left), Adam Stanowick,
Sarai Covell, Libby Dahlberg and
Alec Schneider
planning strategists, CPAs, [financial] planners and portfolio
managers. Also, Mercer has 90 offices around the country [in]
… the continental United States plus Hawaii.
Plus, we have an entire financial planning team on staff that
Do you have trust and estate attorneys? helps build out the plans, keeps them maintained and ensures
Absolutely. What we find is that the clients in this space really we’re taking care of our clients proactively. We do similar work
want that kind of one-team approach, mostly because a lot of on the portfolio management side.
the time you’re dealing with a family or multiple generations.
They’re really looking for someone who can connect the dots Is the financial planning team included in those 250
around those areas of planning — tax, estate, investments or so advisors?
and intergenerational wealth transfer. We have all of these It’s in addition to the advisors. All of our advisors are planners
[experts] in-house. as well. But we found that when we can support them with
We have a robust CPA team that does about 5,000 tax people that are exclusively focused on building and maintain-
returns a year for our clients. Similarly, on the estate planning ing the plan, it allows our advisors to spend the time with the
side, a robust team of estate and tax strategists facilitates not clients instead of building the plan.
only the planning but also the implementation. The advisor can really spend their time understanding, get-

22 INVESTMENT ADVISOR APRIL/MAY 2023 | ThinkAdvisor.com