The $12 billion Georgia-based firm Merit Financial Advisors is acquiring Roth Asset Management, a $773 million firm based out of Lake Oswego, Ore., bolstering Merit’s Pacific Northwest presence.
President Steven B. Roth will come on board Merit as a wealth manager and said that Merit’s “team-based, collaborative approach” stood out when he was scouting for potential acquirers. Roth Asset Management focuses on investment advice, corporate 401(k) plans and portfolio management.
It is Merit’s latest move to expand into the region. The firm has several locations near Seattle and Tacoma in Washington and another in Idaho; Roth will affiliate with the firm’s office in Issaquah, Wash.
In March, the firm acquired Viren & Associates, a $542 million firm previously affiliated with Mariner. It’s based in Spokane, Wash., and was Merit’s first office in the eastern part of the state. Earlier in December, the firm acquired the $603 million Trinity Financial Partners, a Berwyn, Penn.-based firm that became Merit’s third office in the Keystone State.
The Roth deal is Merit’s 30th since private equity firm Wealth Partners Capital Group took a minority stake in the firm in December 2020, partnering with several strategic investors led by HGGC’s Aspire Holdings platform. The firm is based in Atlanta, has more than 40 offices nationwide and manages approximately $11.84 million as of the end of June.
In late July, Merit Financial disaffiliated from LPL and later moved its business to Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments.
The move came after an LPL July earnings call in which then-LPL CEO Dan Arnold said several office of supervisory jurisdiction firms were “strategically misaligned” with the firm’s mission and model. WealthManagement.com reported earlier this month that Wealth Enhancement Group was the other of these firms.
