Merit Financial Advisors has appointed John Rajes as Chief Technology Officer as the wealth management firm builds technology infrastructure to support its continued national expansion.
Merit manages more than $30.1 billion across more than 55 offices nationwide and has completed 61 acquisitions, including nine partnerships during 2026.
Rajes will oversee enterprise technology strategy spanning architecture, integrations, data, artificial intelligence, and the development of a more unified digital experience for Merit advisors and employees.
One of his initial priorities will be creating a technology roadmap focused on integration, scalability, and simplicity, including connecting data and capabilities across Merit’s technology ecosystem to reduce the amount of time advisors spend switching between systems.
Rajes previously held leadership positions at LPL Financial, UBS, Barclays, and Goldman Sachs. Most recently, he operated an independent consulting business.
As Head of Strategic Partnerships at LPL Financial, he was responsible for an ecosystem of approximately 90 fintech providers as well as partnerships with asset managers, insurers, and separately managed account providers.
Rajes plans to focus on both core infrastructure, including data and integrations, and advisor-facing applications, including emerging AI capabilities.
The technology strategy is intended to support Merit’s acquisition model by improving onboarding, integrating newly acquired workflows and platforms, and creating a more consistent advisor experience as the organization scales.
Merit manages approximately $30.1 billion, including $22.982 billion in advisory assets, $3.32 billion in brokerage assets, $2.65 billion in employer plans, and $1.8 billion in ESOP assets.
KEY QUOTES:
“Merit has experienced tremendous growth, and we have been very intentional about making sure our leadership structure and infrastructure evolve along with the organization. Technology is now central to virtually every aspect of how we support our advisors, integrate new teams and create scale across the firm. John brings the wealth management experience, technology expertise and strategic perspective we need to connect the investments we are making today with a much broader roadmap for where Merit is going. Our growth strategy has always been about much more than completing transactions. We want to make sure that when great firms choose Merit, we have the leadership, technology, resources and support infrastructure to help them become even stronger. Building that foundation ahead of where we expect the business to go is a critical part of our long-term strategy.”
Chrissy Lee, Chief Operating Officer of Merit Financial Advisors
“Technology becomes more important as an organization grows, but simply adding more technology isn’t the answer. The opportunity is to bring the pieces together in a way that creates a dramatically better experience and allows the organization to scale. Merit already has a strong foundation. Now we can build on it by connecting our data, integrations and AI capabilities in ways that make information more useful, accessible and actionable for advisors and employees. The opportunity to have an outsized impact at a firm growing as quickly as Merit was incredibly compelling. But equally important to me was the culture. There are many firms growing in wealth management. The question is where you believe you can thrive and who you want to thrive with. I saw in Merit a culture, leadership team and ambition that made this a particularly exciting opportunity.”
John Rajes, Chief Technology Officer of Merit Financial Advisors
