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How We Help

As a full-service wealth management firm, we believe you have the most to gain by looking at your financial life holistically – blending investment advice, financial and estate planning, and taxes. We understand that your life story, and financial needs, will evolve and change over time. That’s why we design our wealth management advice, services, and partnership to move in sync with your unique financial objectives.

For 35 years, we have helped individuals and families gain clarity on their financial goals and define a clear path to achieve their economic freedom.

Financial Planning Process Focused on You

True wealth management begins with financial planning. Your financial plan should reflect your life’s journey and integrate with your personal and business life. A sound financial plan sets goals and time frames that are critical for you to achieve economic freedom.

As a Mercer Advisors client, your advisor will conduct an in-depth review of your personal finances, investments, taxes, and trusts. Your team will delve into your values, motivations, and goals because all of this is important in developing a plan that is customized for your life. Once your plan is set, your team conducts regular performance reviews and plan updates, and provides ongoing support to adjust to your changing needs.

Financial plan components include:

Assessment of your financial situation

  • Your life goals and financial objectives, which serve as the North Star of the plan
  • Asset and liability assessment to estimate your net worth

Strategies for growing your wealth while minimizing risks and expenses

  • Proposed budget based on your personal situation
  • Customized investment strategy based on your risk tolerance and time horizon for achieving your goals
  • Tax strategy integrated into every aspect of the financial plan to save you money today and in future years
  • Insurance review to ensure you are properly covered in case of unforeseeable circumstances

Plans to help you meet your long-term goals and legacy

  • Children’s education plan, including 529 plans to fund college expenses
  • Retirement plan review to support the likelihood of retiring with your desired standard of living, based on a projection of retirement income
  • Estate, trust and charitable plan recommendations to ensure your assets are passed on according to your wishes

Learn more about our Financial Planning process.

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Investment Management

As a fiduciary, we manage your wealth with the same care and diligence with which we manage our own.

We understand clients entrust to us their life savings, and that no two clients are alike. Some come to us with unique tax challenges, difficult family dynamics, or personal social values that they’d like to see incorporated in their portfolio. All share a desire to have their wealth managed using the best thinking available.

At Mercer Advisors, we’re uniquely positioned to deliver on all these fronts. Unlike many firms where a single advisor, or perhaps the owners of a firm, make all investment decisions, at Mercer Advisors we have a separate 14 member investment committee that oversees the firm’s investment research policies, portfolios, and managers. The Committee is led by our Chief Investment Officer.

In addition to our sophisticated investment offering, we enhance your portfolio by managing taxes, diversifying and rebalancing to achieve your asset allocation goals, and coaching you through the ups and downs of the market.

Learn more about our Investment Management services.

A Multi-Faceted Approach to Investment Management 6

Estate Planning

A thorough estate plan includes a host of family essentials, including gifting and estate transfer, end of life planning, guardianship of underage children, asset stewardship, philanthropic desires, and more. As each plays a significant role in the estate planning process, it is critical to evaluate all of these components carefully and comprehensively.

Estate Planning with Our In-House Attorneys

To help carry out your legacy, estate planning at Mercer Advisors is handled by our in-house team of estate attorneys and specialists who work closely with your advisory team.

Estate laws are complex and differ from state to state, and our team of experts is experienced in all aspects of estate planning.7 As part of our holistic approach, our in-house estate attorneys will review your existing documents and assist in drafting new ones—from wills and revocable living trusts to more complex multi-generational estate plans. Ensuring your estate plan remains on-track with your evolving goals and family situation is an ongoing process.

Learn more about our Estate Planning services.

Our estate planning services include:

Document review,
documentation, & maintenance

Tax-efficient
investment planning

Tax-efficient
distribution planning

Charitable & philanthropic
goals & implementation

gifting
strategies

Inter-generational
wealth education

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 its affiliation with Advanced Services Law Group, Inc.

Tax Planning & Preparation

Over your lifetime, taxes can represent a large expense, and as tax laws are updated, the impact on your finances and investments could be substantial. We help our clients proactively address key questions to providing savings, such as:

  • What will my tax bill be in April?
  • What tax-saving strategies can I employ to decrease my tax bill?
  • I need consulting on various tax issues on my business throughout the year, so can I get access to a CPA who knows my situation and can work with my advisor so I don’t have to be involved?

To understand your income sources, tax bracket, and deductions, we begin with a comprehensive review of your recent returns.

We also check your investment income to see if we can reduce your taxes by adjusting your investment strategies. Your fiduciary advisor (many times a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™) will work with our in-house team of CPAs to review strategy and tactics depending upon your circumstances and the complexity of your financial situation.

Our clients benefit from a proactive tax planning strategy that works to minimize tax liability for current and future years. Studies show that proper tax management can add up to 1% per year to long-term returns.⁵

Tax Planning Process Overview

As a Mercer Advisors client, you can expect proactive tax planning advice throughout the year and the timely filing of applicable tax returns by our CPAs, including your personal, business, trust, and estate returns.

Learn more about our Tax Planning and Preparation services.

Our Unified Approach Includes:

Corporate Trustee

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Mercer Advisors’ corporate trustee provides solutions for clients whose financial, family, or business needs require the services of a professional fiduciary.* Asset protection, continuity, and fiduciary responsibility for your family are all part of our specialized service. Knowing that these services have planned for all contingencies adds a layer of protection and peace of mind for you and your family.

What Is a Corporate Trustee Service?

At a time of potentially great emotional stress, the corporate trustee service can relieve a family member’s burden by:

  • Managing the financial assets
  • Following your direction on distributions and bill paying
  • Helping to maintain family unity after death

Working closely with your advisors and our trust specialists, we ensure your wishes are carried out as you’ve designated.

Learn more about our Corporate Trustee services.

  • * Corporate Trustee services are offered through National Advisors Trust Company, the largest federally chartered trust company created by registered investment advisors for the benefit of their clients.
  • ** A Multi-Faceted Approach to Investment Management: Average stock investor performance results are based on a DALBAR study, “Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior (QAIB), 2017.” DALBAR is an independent, Boston-based financial research firm. Using monthly fund data supplied by the Investment Company Institute, QAIB calculates investor returns as the change in assets after excluding sales, redemptions and exchanges. This method of calculation captures realized and unrealized capital gains, dividends, interest, trading costs, sales charges, fees, expenses and any other costs. After calculating investor returns in dollar terms, two percentages are calculated for the period examined: Total investor return rate and annualized investor return rate. Total return rate is determined by calculating the investor return dollars as a percentage of the net of the sales, redemptions, and exchanges for the period. Results are compared to the performance of the S&P 500 Index for informational purposes only. Index performance is provided as a benchmark but is not illustrative of any specific investment. You cannot invest directly in indexes such as the S&P 500 Index. Index performance includes dividends and distributions, but does not reflect fees, brokerage commissions, withholding taxes, or other investing-related expenses.
  • 1S&P 500, Dalbar Qualitative Analysis of Investor Behavior (QAIB) 2017, Barber & Odean, Thaler, Kahneman.
  • 2S&P 500, Dalbar Qualitative Analysis of Investor Behavior (QAIB) 2017, Barber & Odean, Thaler, Kahneman
  • 3JP Morgan, Guide to Markets, March 2018.
  • 4Fama, Eugene & French, R. Kenneth, “The Cross Section of Expected Stock Returns,” The Journal of Finance, June 1992, p.427 – 465; Fama, Eugene & French, R. Kenneth, “A Five Factor Asset Pricing Model,” Journal of Financial Economics, v116, April 2015, p.1 – 22; Jensen, Michael C. and Scholes, Myron, “The Capital Asset Pricing Model: Some Empirical Tests,” Studies in the Theory of Capital Markets, 1972; Markowitz, Harry “Portfolio Selection: Efficient Diversification of Investments,” 1959; Merton, Robert. “An Intertemporal capital asset pricing model,” Econometrica 41, 1973, p.867 – 887; Sharpe, William, F. “Capital asset prices: a theory of market equilibrium under conditions of risk,” Journal of Finance 19, p.425 – 442.
  • 5Envestnet|PMC Quantitative Research Group, “Capital Sigma: The Return on Advice,” p.3
  • 6Industry-specific graph used for informational purposes only. Any information presented here is general in nature, believed to be reliable as of the date published and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal, tax, investment or individual financial planning advice. The projections or other information provided in this chart regarding the value of advice are hypothetical in nature and are not guarantees of future results and should not be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that such client will experience a certain level of results. The actual amount of value added may vary significantly, depending on clients’ circumstances.
  • 7Mercer 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 its affiliation with Advanced Services Law Group, Inc.

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