Creative Planning LLC, an independent registered investment advisor (RIA) headquartered in Overland Park, Kan., has acquired Ferris Capital LLC, an RIA based in Marlborough, Mass., with $755 million in client assets, the companies announced.
Ferris Capital CEO and CIO David M. Ferris, who founded his namesake company in 2012, praised the Creative Planning team and its leader, CEO Peter Mallouk, as a partner who could best elevate client experience and scale its growth.
"It is clear to everyone in our organization that our ability to serve our clients will be substantially enhanced thanks to the world-class team that Peter has assembled at Creative over many years,” Ferris said in a news release. “Peter’s vision and commitment to transparent fiduciary investing with low-cost index funds, coupled with tax and planning experts, CPAs and attorneys, made this an easy decision. Working with Creative will better enable us to advise clients on changing market conditions.”
Mallouk said, “Creative Planning is excited to bring Dave and the Ferris Capital team into the fold and expand our reach into the Massachusetts market. It was evident from the very beginning that the core values at Ferris Capital aligned with our core values here at Creative Planning. These similarities in our underlying philosophies of how we do business should make for a very smooth and successful transition as we aim to provide excellent service to our clients around the world.”
In an email, Mallouk discussed his firm’s plans for both organic and inorganic growth over the rest of the year.
“An ideal acquisition encompasses expanding the talent pool and bringing on a firm that shares our approach to wealth management,” he said. “This is a much bigger focus than size. Of course, if you can accomplish this with a larger firm, it is better as it further helps with expanding talent.”
Mallouk said that including Ferris Capital, his firm has transacted three deals so far in 2022 with a combined total of $1.6 billion in client assets. At this time last year, he said his firm had completed just two deals, but together they brought Creative Planning a total of $5.9 billion in total client assets under management (AUM). Mallouk added that his firm closed on a total of 14 acquisitions in 2021, and he and his team have plans for even more transactions to come in 2022.
“We are on track to have our best organic growth year ever,” he said. “And our focus is and always has been on being as strong as possible there. On the inorganic front, we look at existing opportunities and pursue those that are best fits. We are underrepresented across the country, so there isn’t a market we consider to be ‘all set’ quite yet. For now, it is all about best fits, whereever they may be – and yes, we always have deals in the pipeline.”
Founded in 1983, Creative Planning LLC manages or advises on over $225 billion in assets across all 50 states and in 65 countries.