Merit Financial buys $1.1B New York practice, its 10th Commonwealth team

Merit Financial Advisors acquired Moldenhauer & Associates last month, according to WealthManagement.com, an Orchard Park, N.Y., practice with $1.1 billion in client assets across nearly 1,900 households. It is the Atlanta RIA's 12th acquisition this year and the 10th former Commonwealth Financial Network team to join the firm.

The $1.1 billion is roughly 3% of the $32.9 billion in client assets Merit reports. The firm has completed 63 acquisitions since inception; about one in five has come this year. Brett Moldenhauer, whose father Richard founded the practice in 1974, joins with 12 employees. Neither the price nor a multiple was reported.

Moldenhauer & Associates had been with Commonwealth since 2016, when it managed less than $150 million. It is on track to add about $100 million in new assets this year, roughly 9% of the current base.

Moldenhauer said his firm chose Merit for support with marketing, human resources, technology and operations, and he cited the Commonwealth advisors already at Merit. "What caught my attention was the caliber of people who were choosing Merit," he said in a statement, describing them as successful advisors and industry professionals he knew and respected who were still focused on growing.

Merit has been recruiting those teams against Cetera, Kestra Holdings and Osaic, according to the report. In August it added a former Commonwealth practice in Southern California with about $900 million in client assets.

David Wahlen, Merit's executive vice president of strategic partners, called Moldenhauer "exactly the type of firm we want to partner with as we continue expanding Merit."

This publication reported in August that Merit and Hightower pulled nearly $5 billion from LPL's future book. LPL raised its run-rate cash flow target for the Commonwealth acquisition by $25 million while projecting advisor retention would climb to 90%. Merit's run of Commonwealth deals follows LPL Financial's acquisition of the independent broker/dealer last year.

Commonwealth reports $212.7 billion in regulatory assets, according to PWD's records; the $1.1 billion practice is roughly half a percent of that book.