Mercer Completes Acquisition of Vanguard’s Outsourced Investment Officer Business

Mercer, the financial services and consulting arm of Marsh McLennan, announced Friday it completed the acquisition of Vanguard’s Outsourced Chief Investment Officer business, naming Marc Cordover, Mercer’s US investments and retirement leader, as head of the business.  

The OCIO division specializes in providing investment management services tailored to not-for-profit organizations and other institutional investors across the United States. Announced in December of last year, the acquisition is an expansion of Mercer’s capabilities within the US investment market. Approximately 120 former Vanguard colleagues have joined Mercer. They will be stationed at Mercer’s offices in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and Phoenix, Arizona. 

“Today, we extend a warm welcome to clients and colleagues of Vanguard OCIO, who are now joining Mercer,” Cordover said in a statement. “The addition of these highly skilled investment professionals enhances our perspective and strengthens our ability to assist a diverse range of institutional investors in navigating the market and achieving their financial goals.” 

Clients transitioning from Vanguard will have the option to maintain their existing investment strategies and teams or to consider Mercer’s other resources. The investment managers who were overseeing these OCIO clients at Vanguard will continue to oversee them at Mercer, according to a company spokesperson.  

Resources offered by Mercer include investment talent, thought leadership and solutions from third-party investment managers spanning different asset classes, from traditional equities and bonds to alternative investments like infrastructure and private credit. 

Shekhar Mukherjee, a director at Clearwater Analytics, noted when the deal was announced that one reason for it may have been that the OCIO market has become a scale game, with the biggest players having the infrastructure and scale to make the business work. Among those firms, he said, are Mercer, BlackRock Inc., Russell Investments and the Goldman Sachs Group Inc., some of which Clearwater works with as clients.