Mercer Accuses Former Advisors Of Using ‘Trade Secrets’ to Solicit Clients

Mercer Global Advisors is suing two former employees, accusing them of illegally enticing Mercer clients after the duo left to form their own RIA.

In a lawsuit filed this week in Georgia federal court, Mercer accused Ryan Malec and David Weitz of an “unlawful scheme to misappropriate Mercer’s trade secrets and improperly solicit clients” after leaving the firm in 2023 to found the Atlanta-based Unified Investment Management.

According to Mercer’s complaint and SEC records, Malec and Weitz joined Mercer in 2021 after it acquired ACG Wealth, a $1.3 billion Atlanta-based RIA. Mercer argued that the two advisors signed confidentiality and non-solicitation agreements upon joining Mercer.

In February 2023, the duo left Mercer. However, Mercer accused them of using trade secrets to attract old clients to their new firm.

In April 2023, Mercer found that the accounts of several Mercer clients had been “delinked” from the firm by an unknown third party, meaning Mercer employees could no longer manage those clients’ accounts. 

According to Mercer, after investigating further, the firm learned that nearly all the delinked accounts were for clients Weitz or Malec had advised. Mercer believes the duo urged their old clients to delink their accounts and join them at Unified (as of their most recent Form ADV, the firm has about $136 million in managed assets).

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Mercer and Unified Investment Management did not return requests for comment prior to publication.

In 2023, Mercer filed a lawsuit against ACG Wealth and its founders, Jeffrey T. Shaver and Joseph Young, alleging they violated the asset purchase agreement. They also claimed the duo failed to ensure that key personnel were retained in the move, “instead apparently taking the money from the sale and heading to the golf course, particularly Capital City Club,” an Atlanta-based country club.

Mercer filed to subpoena records from the club last year, in what an attorney for the ACG founders claimed was an attempt to “publicly discredit Mr. Shaver and Mr. Young by intrusively trying to get information about them, their family, being members of these clubs.”

That case is currently awaiting trial.