Cerity Partners to Merge with Verus to Expand Investment Capabilities

Cerity Partners announced Wednesday an agreement to merge with investment consulting and advisory firm Verus Investment Partners LLC. The transaction is expected to close at the end of the first quarter, pending regulatory approval. 

The merger would expand Cerity’s investment capabilities and enable it to serve a broader range of institutions, according to a statement from the firm. The combined firm would manage and advise on a combined $1.3 trillion in client assets, including $1.2 trillion in assets advised and managed by Verus.

Upon the closing of the merger, Verus will align with Cerity’s name and brand, a spokesperson for Verus said via email.

“By combining our institutional expertise with Cerity Partners’ scale and resources, our clients will continue to receive the personalized, fiduciary-driven guidance they rely upon, from the same professionals they have trusted for years, now supported by an even broader set of capabilities and expertise,” said Verus CEO Jeffrey MacLean in a statement.

“We are thrilled to welcome our new colleagues from Verus, which brings decades of experience and incredible expertise in helping institutions achieve their financial goals,” said Cerity CEO Kurt Miscinski in a statement. “This partnership meaningfully expands our leadership in the institutional space and strengthens our ability to serve clients of all sizes, complexities, and delegation preferences.”

Cerity Partners has made a long string of acquisitions of wealth management and outsourced CIO firms this year and in the recent past. In January, the firm announced the acquisitions of Austin Private Wealth and SOL Capital Management. In 2024, Cerity Partners acquired Perella Weinberg Partners’ Agility OCIO unit.

Some advisory and wealth management firms acquired by Cerity in 2024 and 2025 include Graypoint LLC, Oak Hill Wealth Advisors LLC, Fishman Block Diamond LLP, Prio Wealth LP and Von Berge Wealth Management LLC.

Cerity Partners OCIO won the 2025 Chief Investment Officer Industry Innovation Award in the asset management and servicing category, awarded by PLANADVISER’s sister publication, CIO.

Speaking at last November’s PLANADVISER 360 Conference, Paul Sommerstad, a Cerity partner, said his company strives to focus on the fiduciary process when considering retirement plan design and investment choices.

“There’s still an opportunity there to have different asset classes with different turn, different return-and-risk expectations in a participant-directed defined contribution plan. But recentering the fiduciary process, we still need to have the same core principles,” Sommerstad said. “Whether it’s a public market fund or a private market investment in the vehicle, it’s still the same process.”

Cerity Partners’ merger integration process is led by Brittany Peyser, a partner and the firm’s head of change management and merger integration. Prior to joining Cerity, Peyser worked at PwC within its financial services consulting group.