Merging static mesh actors results in static mesh sockets getting lost

Licensee reports that merging two static meshes results in any sockets disappearing in the resultant merged mesh.

"essentially I want to "hard code" the materials and sockets to the static meshes so when imported it remembers all the references without explicit rewiring. this works well via the actor merging process except the sockets..."

Merge two actors that have sockets using the merge actor tool "Merge".