Merchant has inked a number of partnerships in recent weeks and months. It is a minority investor in RIAs and RIA-affiliated businesses.

Summit Investment Advisory Services has partnered with Merchant Investment Management, adding to a run of such pacts that Merchant has entered into over recent weeks. 

In business for more than 30 years, Summit operates from offices throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Florida. Summit offers integrated financial and retirement income planning, investment management, estate, and tax planning services. 

“We sought a partner who understood our business and who could bring more to the partnership than just capital. The industry expertise and investment approach at Merchant really gave us confidence,” Summit’s president Sean McDermott, CFP, said.  “Merchant’s strategic M&A resources come with a partnership structure that gives us freedom of choice and lets us focus on best serving our clients and attracting more outstanding talent.”

Merchant is a private partnership providing growth capital, management resources, strategic opportunities and direction to independent financial services companies, particularly those focused on wealth and asset management. It is a minority investor in RIAs and RIA-affiliated businesses and represents a network of independent advisors with approximately $100 billion in client investment assets under management. The firm also operates as an RIA lender and has an affiliated asset manager. It describes itself as "principally aligned growth partners," according to its website.

Marc Spilker, Merchant’s executive chairman, co-founded the firm in 2017, having formerly served as president of Apollo Global Management. The Merchant teams have served in senior leadership roles in global financial services firms such as Goldman Sachs, Eton Park Capital, Skybridge Capital, Focus Financial Partners, Dynasty Financial Partners and Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments.

Based in Madison Avenue, New York, the firm expanded internationally in December 2021 when it partnered with Brainvest Wealth Management, providing a minority stake investment to the $3 billion multi-shore firm offering wealth planning services and alternative investment solutions to complex, international families and entrepreneurs.

Last week Pennsylvania-based River Wealth Advisors (RWA) announced the closure of a minority investment partnership with Merchant.