Eric Payne (left) and Ron Mencias (right).
Courtesy of Payne & Mencias Group
Team Name: Payne & Mencias Group
Firm: Merrill Wealth Management
Senior Members: Eric Payne, Ron Mencias
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Team Custodied Assets: $3.2 billion
Background: Eric Payne and Ron Mencias met as young CPAs at Ernst & Young in 1997. Payne, a Butler University graduate and CPA, joined Merrill in 1999. Mencias—born and raised in Indianapolis and Notre Dame tennis alum—left EY in 1999 for PaineWebber’s training program, earned his MBA at night from Butler University, then teamed up with Payne at Merrill in 2002. Today the Payne & Mencias Group counts 16 team members serving roughly 500 families.
Client Relationships: The team’s client roster skews toward private business owners, corporate executives and physicians—and often those who are navigating liquidity events. “Clients hire us for three things: To grow the value of their assets, produce cash flow to support their lifestyle and be extremely tax efficient,” says Payne. The team is built for high-touch service, with eight seasoned client associates, two investment associates, four additional advisors and the two senior partners. “We take great pride in providing white-glove service—and we try to over-communicate,” says Mencias. A signature touchpoint: a weekly Monday 9:30 a.m. client-oriented call where Payne and Mencias review markets and topical issues; During turbulent times like Covid, they host it daily.
Competitive Edge: Both partners bring 25 years of investment experience and deep tax backgrounds. “It’s not what you make—it’s what you get to keep,” says Payne. Continuity matters, too: “Clients want to know we’ll be in the chair for another two decades, and that we’re building junior partners behind us,” he adds.
Investment Strategy: Most portfolios are managed in-house, using primarily individual stocks and bonds to enable year-round tax-loss harvesting and tighter fee control. Equity exposure centers on two core sleeves—a large-cap growth portfolio and a large-cap equity-income portfolio. Cash flow is non-negotiable: “If income covers the bills, clients can ride out volatility without changing strategy,” says Payne. On fixed income, the team favors high-quality municipal bonds for taxable investors and government or corporate bonds in qualified accounts. “We prefer to take risk with equities—not fixed income,” says Payne. Low-cost ETFs appear where efficient, while mutual funds are used sparingly to avoid extra layers of cost. “With individual stocks and bonds, we know exactly when dividends and coupons hit—and we can harvest losses whenever markets dip,” says Mencias. Alternatives are situational. Many of the team’s Midwestern business owners and physician clients already hold illiquid stakes (companies, surgery centers, real estate). “We’re usually believers in not making more of your liquid assets illiquid,” says Payne. After large cash events, however, the team may introduce private equity or private lending where appropriate.
Best Advice: The team says to focus on cash flow, keep 12–24 months of spending in cash and not be afraid to rebalance. “Cash flow lets you be less emotional—your dividends and interest cover the bills,” says Mencias. Balance-sheet design matters, too. “We like conservative debt so we can tilt portfolios a bit more toward growth without worrying about market pullbacks,” he adds. Payne sums up the sleep-at-night ethos: “Build the right portfolio on the way in—then let time in the market do the work.”
