As the market hits new highs, registered investment advisers bought five to seven years ago by private equity firms are starting to look ripe. That's the case for Mercer Global Advisors Inc., a large Santa Barabara, Calif.-based RIA with $6 billion in assets under management. A deal was announced Wednesday in which its private-equity owner, Lovell Minnick Partners sold the firm to Genstar Capital, another middle-market private equity firm. Mercer, a fee-only firm with 15 offices nationwide, had approximately $4 billion in assets under management when it was acquired in May 2008, according to Jeffrey Lovell, chairman of Lovell Minnick Partners. That number dropped to as low as $3 billion after the 2008 financial crisis that started later that year, according to Mr. Lovell.