Merchant buys stake in $1bn Long Island RIA
Andrew Foerch / 10 February 2022, 10:00
Fusion Family Wealth is Merchant’s third investment in a $1bn RIA this February.
Merchant Investment Management is on a roll, having taken a minority stake in its third $1bn RIA of the month.
The New York City-based serial RIA investor announced on Thursday that it has acquired a stake in Fusion Family Wealth on Long Island in Woodbury, N.Y. Specific financial terms of the transaction, which closed in June 2021, were not disclosed.
Fusion, founded in 2013 by chief executive Jonathan Blau with assistance from Dynasty Financial Partners, targets investors with at least $5m in investable assets and centers its planning process around tenets of behavioral finance. The firm manages roughly $1bn in total client assets. In addition to individual investors, Fusion manages 401(k) retirement plans for business clients with a particular focus on accounting and law firms.
A representative from Dynasty confirmed to Citywire that Fusion is no longer on the company’s platform.
Tim Bello and I have been friends for years, and as we learned more about what Merchant has built over the years, we saw peer-to-peer strategic possibilities that few others could have helped us
create,’ said Blau (pictured).
Prior to founding Fusion, Blau led private investment groups for Morgan Stanley and UBS. His RIA now employs eight people including four advisors. Blau’s wife, Amy Blau, is the firm’s chief of staff.
‘The team at Fusion has built a behavioral finance engine that could only come from the RIA world,’ stated Merchant managing partner Tim Bello, who added that Jon and Amy Blau ‘are long standing personal friends. That personal connection sits at the top of the list for me. Being shoulder to shoulder with people we know and can trust.’
Merchant’s RIA investing team has kept busy this month. The firm has already announced minority investments in two other $1bn RIAs: River Wealth Advisors in Camp Hill, Pa., and Inspirion Wealth Advisors in Libertyville, Ill., near Chicago. Merchant generally takes minority stakes of 20% or less in wealth managers and affiliated businesses.
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