NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Opto Investments (“Opto”), the technology-enabled solution expanding private markets access for independent investment advisors, announced today a strategic partnership with Mercer Advisors, a national Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) with over $60 billion in client assets. Opto will equip the Mercer Advisors client-facing team with a modern, tech-driven solution to bring private markets investments into client portfolios at scale and in a cost-efficient manner.
Mercer Advisors selected Opto as its private markets partner based on shared values of transparency, trust and alignment of interests. By partnering with Opto, Mercer Advisors, which provides wealth management services for mass affluent to ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) families and a spectrum of institutional clients, will further enhance its comprehensive offering to clients.
“Mercer Advisors worked thoughtfully to select the right partner for our new private markets platform, and we found that with Opto,” said Daniel Gourvitch, President at Mercer Advisors. “This collaboration reflects our continued commitment to deliver institutional-grade investing to individual families as part of our family office offering.”
For decades, Mercer Advisors has been sourcing high-quality private markets investments to help increase diversification and improve outcomes for UHNW and HNW families. Opto’s user-friendly platform will simplify workflows and operations, saving time and creating better client experiences, helping Mercer Advisors deliver curated and customized investment opportunities across infrastructure, private credit, private equity, real estate and venture capital. Mercer Advisors will launch a customized set of multi-strategy funds for its Qualified Purchaser (QP) clients, and the firm intends to launch several custom funds each year using Opto’s proprietary platform.
“Accessing high-quality private investments has historically been expensive and unnecessarily cumbersome,” said Donald Calcagni, MBA, MST, CFP®, AIF®, Chief Investment Officer at Mercer Advisors. “Mercer Advisors’ institutional approach to investing in private markets and the team’s broad network of fund managers, when combined with Opto’s technology, is truly a differentiator in the market. Partnering with Opto positions us to incorporate carefully designed, risk-controlled allocations to private markets in client portfolios and to do so in a streamlined, cost-efficient way.”
“The private markets model is broken, and we’re thrilled to partner with Mercer Advisors to fix the space and create a more efficient and client-friendly paradigm as we grow together,” said Jake Miller, Co-Founder and Chief Solutions Officer at Opto. “There are no misaligned incentives in our partnership. We believe in the value of fiduciary advice, and that advisors deserve better, simpler and more scalable options for accessing private markets.”
Mercer Advisors and Opto are fully committed to a long-term partnership in which both parties are invested in each other’s success.
Gourvitch added, “As we've worked more closely with Jake, Ryan VanGorder and the entire Opto team, we have been impressed and inspired by the depth of their commitment to a fiduciary approach to private markets. Ultimately, our most important obligation is to always act in the best interest of clients — and it's important to work with partners who share that belief."
For advisors and investors who are interested in learning more about Opto Investments, visit optoinvest.com. To learn more about Mercer Advisors, please click here.
About Opto Investments
Opto Investments (“Opto”) is a technology firm changing the way fiduciaries experience private markets. Opto partners with advisors, CIOs, and other fiduciaries to solve the challenges of building and distributing customized private markets solutions at scale. Intelligent workflows and elegant design simplify the private markets investment process, minimizing paperwork, saving time, and creating better client experiences.
We built Opto as a fiduciary and with a fee structure that aligns us with our clients. We do not receive compensation from fund managers and frequently invest our own capital in the deals we choose for our platform.
Founded by Joe Lonsdale, backed by 8VC, Fin Capital, and Michael Dell’s DFO Management, Opto is able to access truly differentiated opportunities across private credit, private equity, real estate, venture capital, and more. We guide fiduciaries through every step of the investment process, with holistic portfolio construction tools and hands-on guidance based on their needs.
Opto is your long-term partner for building smarter private markets portfolios.
For additional information, please visit our website and LinkedIn.
About Mercer Advisors
Established in 1985, Mercer Advisors is a wealth management and financial planning firm that provides comprehensive, fee-based investment management, financial planning, family office services, retirement benefits and distribution planning, estate and tax planning, insurance solutions, and corporate trustee and trust administration services through various affiliated entities and third parties. Mercer Advisors Inc. is a parent company of Mercer Global Advisors Inc. (RIA), and Regis Acquisitions, Inc. (RIA), all of which operate under the Mercer Advisors brand. Both are owned indirectly by hundreds of employee-owners as well as four long-term capital partners: Oak Hill Capital, Genstar Capital, Altas Partners, and GIC. Mercer Advisors. is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, is privately held, has 1,100 employees, and operates nationally through 70+ locations across the country. Mercer Advisors manages over $60 billion in client assets. For more information, visit www.merceradvisors.com.
Mercer Advisors Company statistics as of March 31, 2024. Client assets refers to client assets under management (AUM) and client assets under advisement (AUA) by both Mercer Global Advisors Inc. and Regis Acquisition Inc. Client Assets also includes assets gained from recent acquisitions where the advisory agreements have been properly assigned to Mercer Global Advisors, but the custodial accounts have yet to be transferred and/or the accounts have yet to be migrated to Mercer Global Advisors' portfolio management system. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. and Regis Acquisition Inc. are affiliated SEC registered investment advisers and deliver investment advisory and family office related services. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. and Regis Acquisition Inc., are subsidiaries of Mercer Advisors Inc., a parent company not involved with investment services. Aspen partner funds are offered through Opto Investment, Inc., an unaffiliated technology partner of Mercer Advisors.
“Mercer Advisors” is a brand name used by various legal entities including Mercer Global Advisors Inc., a SEC registered investment advisor; Regis Acquisition Inc a SEC registered investment advisor; Mercer Advisors Private Asset Management, Inc., a SEC registered investment advisor; Heim Young and Associates, Inc., (MA Brokerage Solutions) a broker dealer, member FINRA/SIPC; and Mercer Advisors Insurance Services, LLC (MAIS), an insurance agency providing individual life, disability, long-term care coverage, and property and casualty coverage through various insurance companies. These entities are affiliated and are owned by Mercer Advisors Inc.
Mercer Advisors is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice to clients. All estate planning documentation preparation and other legal advice is provided through select third parties unrelated to Mercer Advisors. Tax preparation and tax filing are a separate fee from Mercer Advisors' investment management and planning services. Trustee services are offered through select third parties with which a client would engage directly, as such additional fees may apply.
