By Steve Garmhausen

Dane Sauer has worked in four cities for Mercer Advisors, helped launch a mass-affluent offering, and now is a managing partner running the $80 billion-asset firm's Midwest division -- and he's still only 32. The Chicago-area native attributes much of his success to a willingness to move around, as well as to one key behavior: "I ask a lot of questions."

Speaking with Barron's Advisor, Sauer says he isn't afraid to pepper others with questions about specific things they do well. He talks about the importance of mentors and the career benefits of joining a smaller, growing firm. Finally, he explains why Mercer's efforts to target the mass-affluent segment failed in the past -- but are showing promising results now.

Where are you from and how did you get into the business? I was born and raised in the western suburbs of Chicago and studied financial planning at Eastern Illinois University. I was fortunate that a couple of academic advisors had pushed me to study financial planning. I knew nothing about it but they knew I had a love for business and for helping people. Three of my professors had their own practices, and they gave me a view of the fiduciary RIA world. So I knew I wanted to work for a fiduciary firm after graduation, and I was fortunate to find Mercer.

You've been at Mercer about 10 years now. What's your journey been like? I joined Mercer Advisors when it was about $2 billion in assets under management, and we may have had 10 to 12 offices around the country. I didn't know how quickly we would grow. Today we're at almost $83 billion of assets. I'm now in charge of Mercer's Chicagoland market, consisting of Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, managing more than 20 advisors with $900 million in client assets. Prior to this, I spent a few years in Houston, where Mercer had acquired a trust company, and that gave me an opportunity to work with really affluent families.

There was a lot of complex trust and estate tax planning, and that gave me technical expertise that I didn't previously have. I then spent a little time in Dallas, where I worked with many government employees, including teachers. At the time, there were nuances with the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and the Social Security Windfall Elimination Provision that reduced Social Security benefits for individuals who also received a pension. Many of these clients were high school teachers or professors who didn't have significant wealth, so the elimination provision had a noticeable impact on their retirement benefits. The planning we did for them was essential to helping them achieve a successful retirement.

I then moved to Austin, where I got my first experience in leadership. For a little bit, I led that market, which was a smaller market at the time. I was quickly called after that to help launch Wealth Path, which is our offering for mass-affluent families, or what might be called HENRYs -- high earners, not rich yet. I spent about two and a half years there before coming back to Chicago, where I lead a Midwest team.

You've climbed the career ladder relatively quickly. Do you credit a mentor? My leadership style is a reflection of two great mentors who I'm lucky to call friends. Josh Gustafson led the entire wealth management function at Mercer Advisors for a long time. He spent time as an advisor, where he knew the pain points of what clients were trying to solve; he spent time in a business development role; and most recently he was in executive leadership. So he knew the challenges advisors face. He always led from the front and came back to "what is the right thing to do for the client?" He believed in me before I believed in myself. Laura Combs is another mentor and friend. She has an uncanny ability to get things done. I've been so impressed with her energy and figuring out ways to remove roadblocks.

When did Wealth Path start and what was the impetus behind it? We launched it in March of 2023. I co-launched it with Emily Messegee, who has since retired, and Laura Combs. This was something Mercer Advisors had tried to do previously focused on the mass-affluent segment, but we'd struggled to get it off the ground. In prior iterations of this, we had a centralized team in our Denver hub, where all the advisors were. What changed is we realized that clients want a local advisor. That also meant that local teams wanted to know who that advisor for mass-affluent families is. Because often they were referrals from or family members of existing clients.

Growing up, I didn't know a lot of people who had multiple millions of dollars, but I knew a lot of people in this mass-affluent segment, so it was near and dear to my heart. We started with something like 25 team members; it's north of 90 team members today, serving more than 8,000 families. Every client gets a unified in-house team: When we talk about things like estate planning and tax planning, there are Mercer employees doing them for our clients, we're not outsourcing any part of clients' financial planning. Every Wealth Path client gets a dedicated, handpicked advisor who is focused on serving the client, not finding new clients for the firm.

In addition, they get the full benefit of specialized resources such as estate planning attorneys, tax advisors, financial planners, and portfolio managers. I think a lot of other firms that try to play in this space use a centralized advisor-team approach. Our way is really beneficial for clients. It doesn't matter that they only have half a million dollars, they still want to know who their advisor is. They don't want it to be somebody they only see over Zoom or talk to on the telephone.

Are you still involved with Wealth Path? I am still involved, mainly from a strategic planning standpoint as well as mentoring some of the Wealth Path advisors.

The economics of serving the mass market can be tricky. How does Wealth Path make it work? Wealth Path is profitable, and really for two reasons. First, our technology platform is world-class, and the integration of AI has significantly increased advisor capacity. Advisors can serve more clients effectively without compromising quality, thanks to automation in planning workflows, data aggregation, and client engagement.

Second, and more importantly, Wealth Path has allowed us to target an underserved segment of the market with HENRYs. It just so happens that most HENRY clients are in their accumulation rather than decumulation years. For the average retiree, and many great firms target this segment, those clients are going to be enjoying their retirement and spending down their assets. On the other hand, almost all our HENRY clients are entering their peak earning years and contributing significant capital to their portfolios.

What are your duties as regional manager? Helping grow the Midwest is another role that's near and dear to my heart. Chicago is a tremendous market, and there's so much potential here. We've had an office here for more than 25 years; the problem was we weren't growing as successfully as we had in some other markets. So it felt like working for a start-up, but with the backing of an established firm in Mercer Advisors. We've grown AUM about 33% since I took over.

What have been your keys to career success so far? Maybe the most important thing is that I ask a lot of questions. Whether it's public speaking, or how somebody thinks about strategy, or how somebody handles really difficult client situations, I ask people I want to emulate how they do it. I've raised my hand for a lot of opportunities. And I've been the beneficiary of a firm that's growing really quickly.

I meet with a lot of college students who are interested in the career and want to learn more. I always tell them, don't discount how important it is to work with a growing firm, because with that is going to come opportunity. If you're willing to raise your hand -- and in my case that meant moving around -- you could really advance your career a lot quicker than at other places.

I'm bullish about this industry. I think it can provide so many opportunities for everybody who wants to make a career out of it. It's an industry that I wish more people talked about.

Where do you see yourself going from here? What would you like to achieve? I want Chicago and the Midwest to be a top-two or top-three market for the company. I still work with a select group of clients and love that part of it. But the impact I can have on team members in helping them accomplish the things they want in their careers, there's been nothing more rewarding than that.

What are the biggest pain points you and your colleagues are trying to help advisors solve? I think the pain point is just, how do you balance growth with excellent client service? We always say we're in the business of making promises and keeping promises, and if we don't do that, growth will suffer. We were a little understaffed from a client service perspective when I started this position, and adding more of these resources has benefited our clients. We measure that through our net promoter score. Those scores have gone up over the past 18 months.

What do you do outside of work to recharge? I love spending time with my family. We love checking out new restaurants, going to parks, and going to the beach. We travel as much as we can. My mom's extended family is from Greece, so we try to get back there once every year or two. I love to golf.

Thanks, Dane.

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December 09, 2025 15:08 ET (20:08 GMT)

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