New owners of River Wealth Advisors partner with Merchant to grow assets ~ CPBJ & LVB
By: Cris Collingwood; February 1, 2022
River Wealth Advisors (RWA), one of the largest independent registered investment advisory firms in Central Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley, has entered a partnership with investment group Merchant as part of an ownership succession.
Since September, the ownership succession has grown the company’s assets to more than $1 billion.
Chief Executive Officer Edward O’Gorman, who assumes this new role after 11 years at the firm, and Chief Client Officer Rebecca Stevenson McClure, who joined the firm in 2018, have taken these expanded leadership roles along with Merchant making a minority investment to support their growth plans.
The change happened in September after majority partner, Robert Caplan transitioned his ownership shares to O’Gorman and McClure to focus solely on his clients, a RWA statement said.
“We have seen other firms in our region give up their independence through roll-up mergers. We saw an opportunity with Merchant to uphold our promise to our clients and our team members by maintaining majority ownership and day-to-day operational control at the local level,” said O’Gorman, who also serves as chief investment officer of RWA. “This strategic partnership provides growth capital and resources to galvanize the future evolution of our firm.”
RWA’s partnership with Merchant sets the stage for the firm to build on its client experience, implement formalized career development tracks for the firm’s team members, and pursue organic and inorganic growth, the company said.
Merchant’s firsthand understanding of wealth management and its long-term commitment of resources have already yielded results for RWA, according to a company statement. Since September, RWA has surpassed $1 billion in assets and has formalized a team-based service model that offers clients access to RWA’s expertise at all levels, including investment strategy, financial planning and ongoing relationship management.
“RWA has been uniquely supportive of the advisor-client relationship, working with advisor teams in central Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley to grow in a way that adds value well beyond the traditional wealth management offering. Also, a woman-owned, independent firm of its size is well-positioned to stand out as an attractive place for other advisors to bring their business. Our partnership is designed to help Ed, Becky and their team fully and truly capitalize on the future opportunity,” said Tim Bello, managing partner at Merchant.