Deals Of The Day: The Latest In Wealth Management M&A – Mercer, Brighton

Editorial Staff

10 January 2024

Mercer, Brighton
Mercer Global Advisors, the RIA has bought Middleton Financial Management, doing business as Brighton Financial Planning. This continues a run of acquisitions by Mercer, with the previous one announced as recently as this week.

Brighton operates in New Jersey and South Carolina and was founded by John P Middleton. The firm has AuM of about $90 million.

The terms of the financial transactions were not disclosed.

Earlier this week Mercer acquired Paragon Wealth Strategies, a business in Jacksonville, Florida.

Mercer has been acquiring a mass of US wealth businesses. In another example it bought wealth management firms Singh Advisory, located in Denver, Colorado, as well as Private Asset Management in San Diego to strengthen its California presence. The run of deals is part of a wider North American wealth management consolidation story, driven by a desire for scale to handle rising client demands and regulatory costs, while some sellers are looking for retirement exits, to realize past investments, or to achieve more scale by working with a larger partner.