Merchant and Emerge Forge Alliance to Redefine UHNW Client Service

LOS ANGELES & NEW YORK – April 28, 2026 – Merchant, a global operating company providing capital and strategic resources to financial services firms, has announced a significant partnership with boutique family office provider Emerge Business Management. The collaboration is set to deliver integrated, personal CFO-level services to the ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) clients of Merchant’s extensive network of independent advisory firms.

This strategic alliance grants Merchant’s partner firms—which collectively manage over $340 billion in assets—direct access to Emerge’s suite of family office solutions. The move is designed to bridge the gap between high-level wealth strategy and the complex, day-to-day financial administration required by affluent families. By integrating Emerge’s expertise in managing the intricate details of personal financial lives with the investment management and planning offered by advisors, the partnership aims to create a more unified and powerful client experience.

Matt Brinker, Managing Partner at Merchant, emphasized the strategic importance of the deal. “This is a natural extension of how we are building the Merchant ecosystem. Our focus is equipping partner firms with the capabilities to deliver a fully integrated wealth experience for ultra-high-net-worth families - where planning, coordination, and day-to-day execution are unified around a single, family-centered view,” he stated. “Emerge closes the gap between strategy and execution, bringing our partners meaningfully closer to what the best multi-family offices deliver for the families they serve."

Empowering the Independent Advisor

The partnership arrives at a critical juncture for the wealth management industry. Independent registered investment advisors (RIAs) are increasingly competing with large wirehouses and private banks for UHNW clients. While independents often excel at personalized service and fiduciary care, they can struggle to match the comprehensive, in-house family office infrastructure of their larger rivals. Building such capabilities from scratch is a costly and resource-intensive endeavor, often out of reach for all but the largest RIAs.

Merchant’s new alliance with Emerge provides a turnkey solution to this challenge. It allows independent advisors within its ecosystem to offer sophisticated services typically associated with dedicated multi-family offices, such as consolidated bill pay, payroll, tax and estate coordination, philanthropic administration, and management of complex assets like private aircraft or real estate portfolios. This enhances the advisor's value proposition, strengthens client retention, and creates a significant competitive advantage.

Patrick Bowen, President of One Capital Management, a Merchant partner firm, highlighted the immediate benefits. “Our clients benefit most when investment management is fully aligned with the broader context of their lives, values, and long-term goals,” said Bowen. “The addition of Emerge to Merchant’s ecosystem creates a powerful framework where advanced planning, disciplined investment management, and day-to-day family office services work together seamlessly to support families across generations.”

A New Model for the Family Office

The collaboration also shines a spotlight on the evolving structure of the family office itself. The traditional model, whether a single-family office (SFO) or a multi-family office (MFO), often bundles asset management with administrative and lifestyle services. Emerge, however, operates on a distinct, unbundled model that is gaining traction among the ultra-wealthy.

Founded in 2013, Emerge began by managing the financial lives of creative professionals and has since expanded to serve a diverse UHNW clientele. Its core offering is that of a “personal CFO,” a central coordinator who oversees a family’s entire financial picture without directly managing investment portfolios or selling insurance and legal products. This specialization allows Emerge to act as an objective, conflict-free advocate for the client.

“Just as important as what we do is what we don’t do. We don’t manage assets, and we are not insurance providers or tax or estate attorneys,” explained Aaron Judovits, Founder and CEO of Emerge. “Instead, we work alongside our clients and their trusted advisors, coordinating among specialists and bringing discipline to execute across complex financial lives. Our clients rely on Emerge as a personal CFO to help navigate generational transitions and growth.”

This model directly addresses a key pain point for UHNW families: the challenge of managing a disparate group of advisors—from investment managers to accountants and lawyers—who often operate in silos. Without a central coordinating entity, families can face miscommunication, duplicated efforts, and a lack of a consolidated strategic vision. By acting as the operational hub, Emerge provides the oversight and execution needed to implement the strategies devised by the family’s team of experts.

Merchant’s Expanding Ecosystem Strategy

For Merchant, the partnership with Emerge is a calculated step in a broader strategy to build a dominant ecosystem for independent financial services firms. Rather than simply acquiring RIAs, Merchant invests in them, providing growth capital while allowing them to maintain their operational independence and brand identity. A key part of this strategy involves curating a network of essential service providers that its partner firms can leverage.

This approach creates a powerful flywheel effect: as Merchant adds more high-quality service providers like Emerge, its value proposition to potential RIA partners grows stronger. In turn, a larger network of advisors provides a scaled distribution channel for its service partners. This model allows Merchant to enhance the capabilities across its entire network, which now spans more than 130 firms in six countries.

The alliance is consistent with Merchant's recent moves, including taking a minority stake in Validus Capital, a Los Angeles-based multi-family office platform, and appointing a Chief Data Officer to leverage AI and data analytics across its ecosystem. These initiatives demonstrate a clear focus on equipping independent firms with the institutional-grade infrastructure required to serve the increasingly complex needs of the market.

By integrating a specialized execution partner like Emerge, Merchant is not just adding another tool to its belt; it is fundamentally altering the service architecture available to its advisors. This enables them to deliver a holistic and deeply integrated client experience that addresses the full spectrum of a wealthy family's needs, from multigenerational wealth transfer and philanthropic ambitions to the intricate logistics of their daily lives.