The acquisition takes Mercer's total AuM to $16.5 billion.

Mercer Global Advisors, the US RIA, has bought Regent Wealth Management Group, a business with about $300 million of client assets. The firm is located in Woodbridge, Connecticut and the acquisition follows Mercer's purchase of a Californian business in June.

The acquisition brings Mercer a total of 11 branches in the northwest of the US, equating to $2.7 billion in assets under management. There are now three offices in Connecticut. In total, Mercer has 43 offices after this acquisition, and a total AuM of more than $16.5 billion.

The purchase continues a trend of busy M&A activity in the US wealth management space, with regulatory pressures rising client expectations and a need for scale driving some consolidation and repositioning of businesses. Recent data from M&A advisory firm ECHELON Partners showed brisk merger and acquisition activity in recent months.

Among recent deals to highlight the M&A trend, Texas-based Kestra Financial, the platform for wealth managers, recently launched Bluespring Wealth Partners, a new business focused on buying firms in the space. The move came a few weeks after Kestra itself became majority-owned by private equity house Warburg Pincus. At the start of August TA Associates, the private equity business, acquired Wealth Enhancement Group, a firm that oversaw more than $11.8 billion in client assets as at the end of June. The private equity house bought the equity stake owned by funds affiliated with Lightyear Capital LLC, TA Associates and Wealth Enhancement Group

In June Mercer bought Jackson Financial Management, a firm based in Costa Mesa, California. That business has about $510 million of assets under management. The move takes Mercer’s AuM in Southern California to almost $4 billion.