Creative Planning, the Overland Park, Kansas-based registered investment advisor, announced Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire RVK Inc., a Portland, Oregon-based institutional investment consulting firm that advises on approximately $4.3 trillion in client assets. The transaction, expected to close in January pending customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, represents one of the largest expansions yet in the firm's multiyear effort to build capabilities beyond traditional retail wealth management.
Financial terms were not disclosed. Goldman Sachs & Co. is serving as exclusive financial advisor to Creative Planning on the deal. RVK, founded more than 40 years ago, provides non-discretionary investment consulting to just over 200 institutional clients, including public and private retirement plans, endowments, foundations, insurance companies, and health systems. Its services span investment policy development, asset allocation, asset and liability studies, manager research and selection, performance measurement, operational diligence, and governance consulting. The firm's current management team will remain in place following the close.
Peter Mallouk, president and chief executive of Creative Planning, said in a statement that RVK has built an exceptional reputation by providing thoughtful, objective advice to some of the country's most complex institutional investors. He underscored the firm's deep consulting expertise, rigorous investment research, and commitment to putting clients first. "Together, we'll be able to bring even greater scale, resources, and insight to institutions navigating increasingly complex investment and governance decisions," he added.
RVK chief executive Josh Kevan pointed to the firms' shared belief that clients are best served through independent, objective advice, deep expertise, and solutions customized to meet their specific needs. He also highlighted the opportunity to provide RVK's clients and employees with access to broader resources, technology, and capabilities.
The RVK deal extends a strategy Creative Planning has pursued for several years: layering institutional and retirement-focused businesses on top of its core retail advisory platform. That approach has accelerated across the wealth management industry, with larger RIAs expanding their horizons to capture more sophisticated institutional books. Among the most notable examples last year were Mariner's mega-purchase of Cardinal Investment Advisors and Cresset's deal to acquire Monticello Associates.
Creative Planning, which reports more than $780 billion in assets under management or advisement as of June 30, has completed a string of transactions over the past 12 months. In July, the firm added a commercial insurance brokerage to its roster of specialty acquisitions, picking up Kansas City-based Lovell Insurance Group and bringing three of its principals in-house to handle complex commercial insurance and surety work for upper middle-market businesses.
This year also saw the firm expand overseas for the first time, acquiring Swiss RIA Baseline Wealth Management in January before following with the purchase of London-based MASECO, a firm managing more than $5 billion in assets that specializes in cross-border planning for American families living abroad. Creative Planning has also pushed into the retirement plan and 529 savings markets. The firm acquired SageView Advisory Group, a retirement plan consulting business that added a scaled book of defined contribution plan clients to its platform last year, then built on that with the addition of Seattle-based Duncan & Haley in March.
The RVK acquisition is expected to significantly bolster Creative Planning's institutional consulting capabilities, positioning the firm to compete more directly with established players in the institutional advisory space. As the wealth management industry continues to consolidate, deals like this one are likely to become more common, with larger RIAs seeking to diversify their revenue streams and capture a share of the growing institutional market.
