Mercer Advisors Launches Dedicated Philanthropy Team
Mercer Advisors, a Denver, Colo.-based registered investment advisor with $114 billion in client assets, has created a dedicated team to bring philanthropic services to clients.
Mercer Advisors Philanthropic Services is led by Eleonora Sharef, head of philanthropic services, who joined the firm in April from McKinsey, where she co-led the North American wealth management practice. During her 15 years at McKinsey, Sharef said she witnessed the evolution of the wealth management sector, including the increasing importance of family office services. She also worked with many nonprofit organizations, providing strategic advice to them on a pro bono basis.
The new offering builds on Mercer’s family office model, which pairs traditional private wealth management with comprehensive family office services.
The team will help clients turn their charitable ambitions into actionable giving strategies, fully integrated with their broader financial, tax, and estate planning. It is initially available to clients in the firm’s Ascend and Regis service levels, which include families with $10 million and $25 million or more in assets, respectively. These client segments, the fastest-growing part of Mercer’s business, get access for no additional fees and with no minimum giving level.
Regis operates as an integrated private platform formed by uniting Regis Management Company, which joined Mercer in December 2022, Waypoint Capital Advisors, which joined in November 2024, MDK Private Wealth Management, which joined in March 2024, and Singer Burke, which joined in October 2025.
“Many of our wealthiest families are deeply charitable and focused on maximizing the good they can do in their communities and beyond,” said Daniel Gourvitch, president of Mercer Advisors. “Our aim is to deliver the same rigorous approach that has typically only been available within the most sophisticated family foundations to a broader range of families. We’re building it into the same relationship that manages their investments, taxes and estate plans—while respecting that each family must define for itself what it wants to accomplish with giving.”
Charitable giving often remains disconnected from a family’s broader financial plan, driven by ad hoc requests or year-end decisions rather than a clear strategy—and it can add administrative burden while limiting visibility into organizations beyond a family’s network.
Mercer Advisors Philanthropic Services aims to address this with a structured process that covers the full charitable lifecycle, starting with a giving policy statement that outlines the client’s goals, causes they care about, worldviews or guiding principles, and personal goals they want to achieve. They then develop an action plan to allocate their giving portfolio. Lastly, they’ll conduct periodic reviews to make sure the strategy is still working for them.
“I hope that giving feels like it’s part of their family office,” Sharef said. “I hope that it feels like a strategy, like an integrated plan that is purposeful. I hope that it feels like it went from being ad hoc to being more evidence-based, especially for clients who want that. And I hope that it feels fulfilling, that it’s something that you’d say the administrative burden has been taken off of me and I feel joy when I’m doing this.”
Prior to Sharef’s stint at McKinsey, she was a co-founder and CEO of HireArt, a contract workforce management platform.
