Mercer acquires investment consultancies Pavilion and Summit Strategies
Global human resources consulting firm Mercer has announced the acquisition of two investment consultancies: Winnipeg-based Pavilion Financial and St. Louis-based Summit Strategies. The deals reinforce the capabilities of Mercer’s Wealth consulting division.
Mercer is one of the world’s top HR consultancies, offering advisory services in health (employee healthcare programs, benefits packages), wealth (investment and retirement consulting, pension plan advisory) and career (employee engagement, management, and compensation). Based in New York with 23,000 employees across 44 countries, the company services many of the world’s leading organizations, including a majority of the Fortune 1000.
The human resources consulting giant has now reinforced its Wealth consulting division with the acquisition of two investment consultancies: Winnipeg, Manitoba-based Pavilion and St. Louis, Missouri-based Summit Strategies.
Pavilion
Founded in 2006, Pavilion has quickly grown to a headcount of 300 professionals across offices in North America, London, and Singapore. The firm was ranked 13th last year for worldwide assets under advisement (US$685 billion).
“Pavilion is a leading global investment services firm with great leadership talent supporting strong consulting and research capabilities, particularly for alternative investments,” said Rich Nuzum, President of Mercer’s global Wealth business. “In the US, Pavilion is a leading specialist in the defined contribution, endowment and foundation, healthcare, and insurance sectors. In Canada, Pavilion has a strong presence in private wealth management.”
Commenting on his firm’s acquisition, Pavilion President and CEO Daniel Friedman said, “Combining our creativity and knowledge base with Mercer’s global research resources will further enhance our team’s ability to serve our clients across the continuum of advisory and delegated services.”
Mercer will use the Pavilion brand to provide investment consulting services to institutional nonprofits and insurance sector clients.
Summit Strategies
St. Louis-based Summit Strategies was founded in 1995, and has approximately $160 billion under advisement. The investment consultancy supports institutional clients with advisory services in defined benefit pension plans, health care systems, foundations, defined contributions, and outsourced chief investment officer support.
“Summit is a strong investment consultant in the not-for-profit space, providing notable alternatives capabilities to hospitals and foundations,” commented Mercer’s Nuzum. “The depth and breadth of Summit’s expertise, coupled with our offerings, will benefit our collective client bases.”
Commenting on the transaction, Summit Founder and Principal Steve Holmes said, “We believe that having a global research footprint and a robust technology platform will better position us to support our clients. We’re excited to join Mercer and be able to bring their research capabilities and spectrum of holistic offerings to our clients.”
Both transactions are expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2018.
