About 18 months after bringing on former Conde Nast government Gary Foodim as its chief advertising officer, Mercer Advisors, a quickly rising “integrator” of registered funding advisors, has rebranded to mirror the agency’s evolution since 2017, when its earlier branding was developed.

The agency has grown from about $12 billion in property beneath administration and eight,000 purchasers in 2017 to some $46 billion in AUM and 27,500 purchasers at this time. And plenty of would say the agency now has nationwide attain, with over 90 places throughout the nation and over 240 client-facing advisors.

The brand new branding displays that id as a nationwide RIA, Foodim mentioned, in addition to the agency’s complete and built-in strategy to wealth administration, an providing that now encompasses monetary planning, funding administration, tax planning and submitting, property planning, trusts and insurance coverage providers. The agency has taken each a construct and purchase strategy to rounding out these providers.

“We additionally now present a extra strong service mannequin that gives complete planning and execution of the plan so purchasers can get on with their lives,” mentioned Dave Welling, CEO of Mercer Advisors, in an announcement. “Because of this, it’s time for us to speak higher who we’re, what we stand for, and why we’re completely different from lots of the advisors on the market.”

Whereas the rebranding doesn’t embrace a brand new title and brand, it does contain new model tips, photographs, extra fashionable messaging and new colours. For example, the agency’s colours now signify heat, knowledge, renewal, energy, kindness and well being. “These are rules and attributes that mirror on what we do,” Foodim mentioned.

One of many colours is iris, a mix of purple, which represents knowledge and enlightenment, and lavender, which represents femininity and beauty, a nod to the truth that 50% of Mercer’s client-facing advisors are feminine.

The agency has additionally been extra intentional in regards to the photographs it makes use of on its web site, that are targeted totally on purchasers. Whereas many RIA web sites deal with the advisors themselves, Foodim mentioned the agency wished its viewers to see themselves within the photographs.

“A lot of it’s advisor-focused, and positive, you may’t undersell the significance of advisor,” he mentioned. “However I’m simply of the assumption that individuals need to see themselves in these photographs. They don’t essentially need to see a picture of any individual a pc, questioning if that’s a portfolio, questioning if that’s a spreadsheet. They need to see emotion, and so they need to see connection, and so they need to see sincerity. And our photographs will mirror that.”

The agency selected Bandujo, a New York-based design agency, to steer the rebranding effort.

The messaging facilities across the concept of “connecting the dots” throughout all elements of a shopper’s monetary life, and serving to purchasers discover which means of their cash.

“Our wealth advisors carry collectively an in-house, nationwide staff with specialised experience throughout monetary planning, investments, tax methods, property planning, company trusts, insurance coverage and extra,” the brand new web site reads.

“Clearly our work has a deep and significant affect on our purchasers’ lives. We assist them obtain their targets and desires,” Foodim mentioned. “And as somebody who is comparatively new to this business, I sense that our model messaging and our imaging didn’t actually mirror how we’re completely different and, most significantly, why we do what we do and what the result of that’s, which is absolutely serving to folks.”

Among the many advisor neighborhood, Mercer is named a fast-growing and acquisitive agency, mentioned Brandon Kawal, principal at Advisor Development Methods. The agency has been on an aggressive acquisition tear during the last a number of years.

“The early notion of Mercer was rising household workplace to the lots sort of construction,” Kawal mentioned. “They weren’t alone there. At present, they’re considered as one of many massive gamers within the area—the nationwide RIA with strong capabilities that’s going to do 10-plus offers a yr.”

However the agency’s model consciousness will not be merely on the acquisition aspect.

“From a strategic perspective, having skilled their story, Mercer does a very good job coming at it from a planning-centric strategy, monetary planning that’s, with a number of value-added providers round tax, property planning, the trustee providers they will present,” Kawal mentioned.

“They’ve these wide-ranging providers, after which what M&A does for them is permits them to deepen the bench round it.”

Kawal mentioned Mercer can also be a part of a current development of corporations which might be in a position to purchase and attain advisors outdoors of the RIA vertical.

“Mercer and different corporations like them are attending to the scale and magnitude—and so they’ve constructed a lot functionality—that they will go throughout fashions. They will do offers with advisors out of the unbiased dealer/vendor area, they will go to the banks and the trusts,” he mentioned. “In my thoughts it may add to those corporations and their frankly very spectacular progress charges.”