September 30, 2025
Louis Diamond Quoted
By Alex Ortolani
It was about 12 years ago when the lead advisors in a large Atlanta-based practice with Merrill Lynch took a call from Diamond Consultants. As per the consultancy’s CEO, Louis Diamond, the response to the idea of a move was a friendly but firm “No.”
“They said, ‘We’re the largest team at Merrill, we’re growing by an insane amount,’” Diamond recalled. “Basically, use your time elsewhere, because we’re not a prospect for you.”
About a decade later, the times had changed. Merrill’s Global Corporate and Institutional Advisory Services team was consistently ranked by Barron’s as a top institutional wealth consultant and private wealth team. According to court documents filed last week, leadership had gotten frustrated with what it described as Merrill’s lack of investment in the division. It turned back to conversations with Diamond about what a move to independence would look like.
After about two more years of talks, the result was last week’s launch of OpenArc Corporate Advisory, a $129 billion Atlanta-based RIA specializing in corporate and individual wealth management. The firm is majority-owned by its senior leadership, has minority backing from a noncontrolling investor and boasts a pipeline of potential clients from its institutional business. In short, it is a ready-made, mega-RIA that would generally take years and multiple acquisitions to build.
