Mercer Advisors

Summary — The initial sales pitch sounded great, but broken trust and poor communications lead to a very quick end to our relationship. They just wanted our money fast without walking us through the investments. (had to shorten due to char cap)
Being new to advisors we had thought that a personal financial advisor was supposed to walk you through investments and fees. Investment research told us to expect a general portfolio along the lines of ⁹⁰⁄₁₀ or ⁷⁰⁄₃₀ stocks/​stable value. This much we could get from the internet, but we were looking for a little more advice and education. We already had a brokerage account with Scottrade we have been very happy with, so we were pleased to accept their recommendation of Mercer Advisors.
After the initial interviews with Mercer, things looked very promising. We are in our mid 30’s and we had a few goals in mind. Their management fee was in the reasonable range at 1.1% plus the cost of the trades within Scottrade, where all of our accounts would be established. We were very clear to ask several times that this fee was all-​inclusive, including all fund management fees. Mercer indicated that this was the case and highlighted that in their 30+ years they had developed very good relationships with various companies, so they would be able to get us into funds not normally accessible. We discussed with them that we were nervous and would need hand holding through the process, including explanations on the portfolio and movement of money.
Prior to our investment strategy meeting, we were surprised to find that Mercer had already moved the money out of our old accounts into the new Scottrade accounts. We thought we had been clear that they were to discuss this move with us, but they apologized for the miscommunication and promised we wouldn’t have a problem in the future.
Moving into the strategy meeting, Mercer shared their road map for us to retirement and beyond. We confirmed we wanted in a risk split and to have all fees billed to us separately. We requested Mercer talk with us about the funds before the initial investment so we could understand how these funds honored our plans. All of the general layout looked good as far as the plan and Mercer was looking at the total picture (pension, SS, lifestyle planning, long term care etc.), just as we were looking for. We were off to the races!
Just a few days later, with no further communication from Mercer, we were stunned to find that all of our old funds had been sold and new funds had been purchased. At $ 17 per trade to sell all of our old mutual funds and purchase the new ones, they had just spent a considerable amount of money to reallocate our funds into assets we weren’t sure about, with no clear understanding about if or how it would fulfill our investment strategy. We contacted Mercer immediately and they again apologized for not discussing the funds before investing. We were upset, but chalked it up to another miscommunication. A full review meeting for a few weeks later to see how the portfolio was progressing.
We wanted to become a bit familiar with our new funds before our review meeting with Mercer. The funds had fees between 0.18% and 1.26% and were spread amongst various companies. One fund was a shocking 6.07%, though further research showed it was under some sort of SEC waiver to force it to 0.7% until March 2016.
The next meeting started off very well. Both the initial advisor and our direct portfolio manager were on the phone at this call. Did basic pension Q&A etc.
We then asked about the fees on the various funds in our portfolio. The initial advisor was in the car and could not pull up the account. We did our best to ask about the fees by using an example of one fund in the portfolio, but when that didn’t work we asked just a general overall look at the portfolio with:
If they invested $ 100 of our money in one of our new funds for one year, what is the break down? Do we just pay $ 1.10 to Mercer in total? Or do we pay $ 1.10 to Mercer and additionally $ 1.26 to fund X and $ 0.18 to fun Y? Or was there some other distribution we didn’t yet understand?
Unable or unwilling to adequately answer that question, we queried about why any fund in the portfolio would be as high as 6.07% or 1.26%. The initial advisor just continued to tell us these were great funds with no load and that they were the best in their class and their relationships allowed us to gain access to these wonderful funds. The portfolio manager did not say a word. We asked for the full fee rundown, but later only got an email with fees for one fund… we called and left a polite voicemail that we wanted a full portfolio fee walkthrough. A day later we got a call back from Mercer informing us that they were no longer interested in doing business with us. Thankfully Scottrade was able to get us back to our original portfolio for no transaction fees.

Mercer Advisors helped me negotiate through learning to manage my portfolio with confidence and peace of mind as a widow and recently retired teacher. I trust their professional advice and appreciate their prompt responses to my questions. My portfolio is up and retirement rocks!

This company gives great financial advice and helps us achieve our financial goals!