Mercer Advisors

The Investment Policy Committee, led by Chief Investment Officer Don Calcagni, sets the asset allocation and manager selection framework. Individual portfolio managers implement allocations within client mandates. The committee's biases lean toward institutional fund managers and internal Mercer fund structures for alternatives and factor exposures.

Mercer primarily sources alternatives through third-party funds, acting as a feeder aggregator for its client base. The firm commits client capital to external managers like Blackstone, KKR, and Ares, negotiating access via the aggregate size of its RIA platform. It does not typically originate or co-underwrite direct deals.

Mercer Advisors is a commercial Registered Investment Advisor structured as a multi-family office in practice. It serves over 26,000 predominantly high-net-worth households with integrated tax, estate planning, and investment management — a delivery model that mimics the family office experience without requiring a dedicated single-family office structure.

Mercer Advisors is majority-owned by private equity firms Oak Hill Capital and Genstar Capital. Genstar has held an ownership stake since 2015, and Oak Hill partnered with Genstar in a recapitalization that valued the firm around $3.5 billion in 2019, per Bloomberg. The firm's rapid acquisition pace is funded through this private-equity backing.

Mercer employs in-house CPAs and estate attorneys who file tax returns and draft estate documents directly for clients. This vertical integration is rare among RIAs and mirrors a true family office model. These professionals sit alongside portfolio managers in client meetings, reflecting the firm's founding identity as a tax-and-estate shop.

Acquired firms typically migrate their client portfolios onto Mercer's centralized investment platform within six to twelve months. The central team standardizes asset allocation, manager selection, and reporting. This creates operational efficiency but sometimes generates client transition friction, particularly among high-net-worth clients who previously had bespoke mandates with their legacy advisor.

Mercer allocates client capital to direct real estate through internally structured funds, primarily focused on income-producing US properties. These vehicles target core and core-plus assets in multi-family, industrial, and retail sectors. The real estate allocation is a meaningful component of the firm's alternatives platform alongside private credit and private equity.