Creative Planning is acquiring Edmonds Duncan, a $550 million RIA whose Lawrence, Kan. location. it's just over 30 miles from Creative Planning's headquarters in Overland Park.
The Edmonds Duncan deal marks Creative Planning's first acquisition since San Francisco private equity firm TPG Capital's “substantial” minority stake in RIA led by Peter Mallouk.
In a statement about the deal, Creative Planning's CEO said Edmonds Duncan excelled at “delivering a personalized approach” similar to larger RIAs.
“Their strong foundation and local presence in our home state significantly expands Creative Planning's reach,” said Mallouk.
According to SEC filings, Jason Edmonds and Don Duncan co-founded the firm in 2013 after working together for 15 years, with multi-year stints at Baird, Morgan Stanley and PKS Investments.
Some of their client relationships date back to 1968, when Jason's father, Steve Edmonds, entered the brokerage world. They currently work with about 600 families. According to Jason Edmonds, the merger was the “culmination” of efforts to bring a large group of services under one roof for clients, and Creative Planning seemed like the best fit.
“Our due diligence showed that, in addition to perfectly aligned investment philosophies and services, Creative Planning has built a best-in-class, fully integrated suite of financial planning, investment management, estate planning, tax, insurance and trust services,” Edmonds. said.
Six Edmonds Duncan employees (including the two founders) will join Creative Planning in the deal. Richard Tischler at RiezmanBerger was Edmonds Duncan's legal counsel on the sale.
In late September, TPG Capital announced it would make a “significant” minority investment in Mallouk's $375 billion firm. TPG joined existing investor General Atlantic, which retained its minority stake. TPG said it is capitalizing “additional resources and expertise” for Creative Planning (Mallouk retained a majority stake in the company).
The deal was announced days after TPG revealed it had bought a minority stake in Homrich Berg, an Atlanta-based RIA integrator with about $18 billion in assets.
The Edmonds Duncan deal is Creative Planning's ninth since the start of 2023 and its second this year after the acquisition of ML&R Wealth Management in April. The Texas-based RIA's 18 employees managed approximately $1.8 billion in AUM, counting 676 households and 15 institutions as clients.
These deals followed several significant acquisitions near the end of 2023, including the acquisition Mesirow's retirement services business AND Goldman Sachs Personal Financial Management, formerly United Capital.