Merit Financial Advisors, an Atlanta-based hybrid advisory firm with $20 billion in client assets, has hired new senior leaders from independent broker/dealers Commonwealth Financial Network, now owned by LPL Financial, and Osaic.
Alex Hansen, who had been with Commonwealth for four years, joins the RIA as chief advisor success officer. Brian Brashaw, an Osaic alumnus with more than seven years of experience, serves on the team as vice president of employer plan solutions.
Hansen, formerly senior vice president of RIA solutions at Commonwealth Financial Network, will focus on creating a feedback loop between Merit’s advisors and the executive team to help them solve problems and take advantage of growth opportunities.
“This role resonated with me,” Hansen said. “It’s about listening deeply to advisors to see what could use improvement, then getting a group of senior leaders together to brainstorm how to solve those problems. I want to make their lives better and more efficient, as well as develop the community further.”
Hansen said the Commonwealth had developed a strong community over the years, encompassing both large and smaller groups of advisors. He said he wasn’t actively looking to leave after the LPL acquisition, but that as he considered Merit’s offer and learned more about the RIA, “it would have been hard to pass up.”
Hansen pointed to the capabilities Merit can provide beyond investing, which it has added as it has grown, first helped by a minority stake from Wealth Partners Capital Group, and more recently, Constellation Wealth Capital. These are the types of things he’ll be looking to make sure advisors know about and are utilizing.
“A lot of times there is a big gap between the capabilities we have and what the advisor knows about,” he said. “The firm can do 11 things, and the advisor knows about four of them. Long emails aren’t going to get them across. You can try to create videos or other things. … But we need to be communicating to make sure advisors have these [services] at their fingertips, and that’s where the collaboration comes in.”
Brashaw is leaving a role as head of employer plan consulting at Osaic. The self-styled “Nest Egg Ninja” on LinkedIn will lead strategy for Merit’s retirement plan business, which makes up about $3.2 billion of its assets.
Brashaw will be tasked with expanding Merit’s 401(k) and employer-sponsored plan opportunities, an area of focus for Merit as new plans continue to come online and the industry sees opportunity in converting plan participants into wealth clients.
“The industry is not prepared for that volume and yet it represents one of the most important growth opportunities in wealth management,” Brashaw said in a statement. “My job at Merit is to build the foundation, resources, and engagement strategies so our advisors are not only ready—but they are positioned to lead.”
At Osaic’s annual advisor event this year, Osaic ConnectED, Brashaw helped run a session training Osaic advisors on the 401(k) plan space.
Rick Kent, CEO of Merit Financial Advisors, said in a statement that Brashaw’s hire will “allow Merit to expand our business owner planning opportunities from benefits to executive comp to succession.”
Merit runs 55 offices throughout the U.S. through both independent broker/dealer and RIA models. The firm disaffiliated from LPL as its broker/dealer in 2024 and now uses Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments for its brokerage business and Schwab and Fidelity Investments for custodial services.
