Merit Financial Advisors Taps Kay Lynn Mayhue as CEO

Merit Financial Advisors, an Atlanta-based registered investment advisor overseeing $33 billion in client assets, has named President Kay Lynn Mayhue as its next CEO, effective Jan. 1. Founder Rick Kent will move into the role of executive chairman under the planned succession strategy announced by the firm.

Mayhue takes the top job after serving as president and firm partner since 2017, a stretch in which she helped grow Merit from about $2 billion in assets under management and advisement to $33 billion. She will also gain a president of her own: Zach Mersberger steps into that role roughly four years after Merit acquired his firm.

Kent will stay active at the RIA, focusing on long-term strategy, organic growth and culture, which he called crucial to advisors joining and staying with Merit. The two leaders' working relationship predates the merger of their firms by more than a decade, beginning when both ran an advisor coaching group.

"We got to know each other in that coaching group, and I think we developed a respect for each other," Kent said. "Both of us are really big on relationships and investing in relationships, and there was that respect."

The deal that brought Mayhue into Merit took shape when she was facing a partner retirement at her firm, Botsford Financial Group. At the time, she said, the notion of firms merging to scale for growth was still relatively new, and she saw potential in Merit.

"That was right on the brink of this idea of firms truly integrating and not just saying, 'Oh, I'm going to sell because I'm ready to retire,'" she said. "I was seeing that we could be stronger together, and that we could build and scale together and make the client experience better."

Kent said Mayhue had a clear track record as an advisor and producer, but he also saw in her a desire to lead that made her a natural fit for the presidency. Within a few years, he knew he wanted her to succeed him as CEO.

"Before Kay Lynn and I came together, I used to think about succession planning a lot," he said. "I knew I needed a plan, but I didn't know who was going to step up. ... When Kay Lynn came along, and after we started working together for a couple of years, I knew this was somebody who could step up into that role."

The succession caps a period of aggressive expansion. In 2019, Merit sold a minority stake to Wealth Partners Group, a deal that fueled the start of an acquisition strategy. Since then, Merit has closed 62 deals, with more transactions in the pipeline for this year, keeping it among the most active RIA dealmakers.

The firm's M&A focus is deliberate, according to Mayhue. Merit targets firms with second-generation advisors looking to fuel growth rather than retire, a criteria that has also driven the buildout of adjacent services such as tax and estate planning, with an eye toward wallet share and organic growth.

With Mayhue directing operations as CEO, Kent in the executive chair seat and Mersberger elevated to president, Merit enters 2025 with its leadership bench set and its acquisition machine still running — a structure designed to keep both its dealmaking pace and its culture intact through the transition.