Mercer Global Advisors, one of the country’s fastest-growing registered investment advisors with $70 billion in assets, finalized its first deal of 2025 with $660 million Gallatin, Tenn.-based Financial Partners Group. Terms of the deal, which closed in January, were not disclosed.
The deal expands Denver-based Mercer’s presence in the Nashville area, which ranks among the fastest-growing metro areas in the U.S., according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The firm now has about $1.6 billion AUM in the greater Nashville area.
Financial Partners Group founding partners Bo Bowling and Scott Paschal started the firm nearly 25 years ago with a focus on retirement planning and wealth transfer for clients ranging from ultra-high-net-worth families to the mass affluent.
“Mercer Advisors’ vast resources and enhanced capabilities will allow us to continue providing exceptional service to our clients, while also providing meaningful career opportunities for our team,” Paschal said in a statement.
About $487 million of FPG’s assets were held with UHNW clients, $86 million with other individuals, and $44.5 million with pension and profit-sharing plans as of February 2024, according to an ADV filing. It used Charles Schwab for custody.
Martine Lellis, a principal in M&A partner development at Mercer Advisors, said in a statement that Bowling and Paschal “have cultivated a highly respected practice, committed to delivering high-quality advice.” In January of this year, Mercer Advisors announced that it had closed a deal in December to enter the Bend, Ore. market by bringing on two advisors with about $224 million in combined AUM. It also bolstered its footprint in Georgia by closing a deal in December with a $41 million RIA in the Atlanta metro region.
Last February, Mercer Advisors hired five new M&A and integration executives.
Lellis said via email that the firm’s pipeline for deals in 2025 “is robust,” with about 40 to 50 opportunities “at different stages.”
