Mercer Advisors Appoints Ted Motheral as Principal, M&A Partner Development

By: Mercer Global Advisors, Inc. via Business Wire

March 04, 2025 at 09:00 AM EST

Experienced M&A lawyer joins $70 billion RIA

Mercer Global Advisors, Inc. (“Mercer Advisors”), a national Registered Investment Adviser (RIA), today announced the hiring of Ted Motheral for the role of Principal, M&A Partner Development. Motheral joins the firm alongside Martine Lellis, who assumed the same role in May 2024. Together, they lead the company’s team that focuses on helping potential partners understand the benefits for clients, employees, and themselves of joining one of the leading RIAs in the country.

Mercer Advisors’ client-first, team-oriented culture has proven to be a magnet for RIA owners and fiduciary advisors seeking a partner that can provide robust solutions for clients and growth opportunities for employees. Motheral’s arrival adds another experienced RIA mergers and acquisitions (M&A) executive to the firm, enhancing its capacity to provide personalized attention to potential partners navigating the decision on their future partner. The Partner Development team is set up to support RIA owners who are seeking a partnership that will improve the experience for their clients, their team and themselves.

“Ted has built a reputation as a skilled M&A practitioner with an impressive track record of guiding wealth management firms through complex transactions. His significant technical acumen in helping businesses position themselves for success and first-class standard of care fit well with our culture and partnership mindset. We’re honored he chose to join us,” said Dave Welling, CEO of Mercer Advisors. “At Mercer Advisors, we are focused on our responsibility as a fiduciary to help as many families as we can. Finding like-minded new partners who share our values of caring for clients and a belief in teamwork has been the catalyst to our success. With Martine and Ted leading our Partner Development efforts, we have increased capacity to find more partners who want to build client-first solutions together.”

Before joining Mercer Advisors, Motheral served as a Corporate and M&A Partner at Potomac Law Group, PLLC, specializing in M&A, as well as private debt and equity financing. With more than 20 years of experience as an attorney, he has established himself as a leading legal expert in the industry, with deep experience advising over 100 financial advisory and wealth management firms on the complexities of M&A transactions and strategic growth initiatives.

“Mercer Advisors has built a reputation as a premier destination for RIA owners seeking a partner that prioritizes their clients, their team, and their long-term success,” said Motheral. “I look forward to working alongside Martine and the entire M&A team to help prospective partners navigate their transition with confidence. I’m eager to help our new partners unlock the full benefits of Mercer Advisors’ fully integrated technology platform, unified team of specialists and enterprise-scale operations–empowering them to deliver an elevated client experience and realize the vision they have for their team and themselves.”

Motheral is Mercer Advisors’ fourth key hire in the past year. In February, the firm added Alisa Maute as head of client development to lead and expand its client development team. In September, the firm appointed Elizabeth Hioe as its chief people officer, responsible for aligning talent strategy and human resources programs with the company’s strategy. And in February 2024, the firm appointed Gün Keresteci as its chief financial officer.

“Welcoming an experienced RIA M&A leader like Ted will enable us to continue to grow our partnership of like-minded firm leaders who want to elevate their impact working as a unified team,” said Lellis. “We are committed to fostering an environment where employees from partner firms join our collective partnership and are enabled to do the best work of their career. I look forward to working with Ted on this shared objective.”

About Mercer Advisors

Mercer Advisors, the #1 ranked RIA firm in the nation according to the Barron’s 2024 Top 100 Registered Investment Advisor Firms, was founded in 1985. For 40 years, Mercer Advisors has been trusted to help families amplify and simplify their financial lives. The company offers comprehensive, fee-based family office services, including financial planning, estate and tax planning, insurance solutions, and corporate trustee and trust administration services. Mercer Advisors Inc. is a parent company of Mercer Global Advisors Inc. and is majority owned by Oak Hill Capital, Genstar Capital, and Altas Partners. Mercer Global Advisors, Inc. is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, is privately held, has 1,200+ employees, and operates nationally through more than 110 locations. For more information, visit merceradvisors.com and merceradvisors.com/partnerwithus.

Important Information

Company statistics as of January 31, 2025. Client assets refer to client assets under management (AUM) and client assets under advisement (AUA) as well as 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 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 unaffiliated 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. Mercer Global Advisors has a related insurance agency. Mercer Advisors Insurance Services, LLC (MAIS) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mercer Advisors Inc. MAIS provides individual life, disability, long term care coverage, and property and casualty coverage through various insurance companies. For Mercer Global Advisors clients who wish to purchase insurance products, MAIS has entered into a non-exclusive referral agreement with Strategic Partner(s), where the Strategic Partner will provide necessary services relative to the marketing, placement, and servicing of the insurance products, including without limitation preparing and presenting illustrations, supporting the underwriting process, assisting with the completion and execution of applications, delivering policies, and servicing in-force business. MAIS and the Strategic Partner will be listed as either “agents” or “co-agents” on the policies. While Mercer Global Advisors does not receive a referral fee, Strategic Partner receives a percentage of the commission revenue. MAIS and Strategic Partner do have a revenue sharing agreement.

2024 - Barron’s Top 100 RIA methodology: Mercer Advisors was ranked number 1 for firms with up to $70 billion in client assets. In 2024 Barron’s ranked the largest registered investment advisor firms separately from its broader RIA ranking. For Barron’s Mega RIAs list, they selected firms that manage 2% or more of the total assets of all ranking applicants. This year, that created a threshold of $70 billion in assets. Advisers who wish to be ranked fill out a 100+ question survey about their practice. Barron’s verifies that data with regulatory databases and then Barron’s applies their rankings formula to the data to generate a ranking. The formula features three major categories of calculations: (1) Assets (2) Revenue (3) Quality of practice. In each of those categories Barron’s does multiple sub calculations including asset type, growth, client retention, technology spending, succession planning, diversity of their teams, charitable and philanthropic work and compliance records. No fee was paid for participation in the ranking, however, Mercer Advisors has paid a fee to Barron’s to use the ranking in marketing.

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