Trinity Financial Partners, a Pennsylvania-based female-owned firm with $603 million in managed assets, is merging with the $12 billion Merit Financial Advisors.
Trinity President Robyn E. Jameson will become a managing director, partner and wealth manager at Merit as a result of the deal and will bring her client support and operations team along with her.
Trinity is based in Berwyn, Pa., and emphasizes financial planning, including investment management and retirement and legacy planning. The firm has also formed a “long-term strategic partnership” with financial services company and TAMP-provider SEI for asset management, tech and operations needs.
“Finding the right partner is challenging, but I’m deeply grateful to have found Merit, a firm that shares our values and commitment to client service,” Jameson said.
Private equity firm Wealth Partners Capital Group took a minority stake in Merit in December 2020, along with several strategic investors led by HGGC’s Aspire Holdings platform. The Trinity deal marks Merit’s 29th since taking on WPCG’s minority investment.
The Trinity office will be Merit’s third in the Keystone State. Merit is a hybrid RIA based in Atlanta, with over 40 offices nationwide. As of late June, it had about $11.84 billion in assets (including $8.8 billion in advisory assets and $2.8 billion in brokerage assets).
In March, Merit acquired Viren and Associates, a $542 million Spokane, Wash.-based firm that provides financial and estate planning for about 750 clients. The firm was previously affiliated with the Mariner Independent Advisor Network. In August, Merit acquired the $180 million Kizer & Associates to found its first office in Illinois.
Additionally, Brian Andrew joined Merit earlier this year as its chief investment officer from his previous role at Johnson Financial Group. On Monday, Samantha Allen, the former senior vice president of integrated marketing at the Carson Group, announced on LinkedIn she was joining Merit as executive vice president of marketing.
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 last week that Wealth Enhancement Group was the other of these OSJs. The $96 billion firm had about $4 billion in assets with LPL and had acted as a super OSJ of LPL for 17 years. That firm’s change will take effect next June, and it has not yet named its next broker/dealer.
