Creative Planning to Buy Institutional Consultant Advising on $4.3T

Serial RIA acquirer Creative Planning has struck a deal to buy RVK, a Portland, Oregon-based institutional investment consulting firm advising on approximately $4.3 trillion in assets, according to an announcement Tuesday. RVK, which was founded 40 years ago, advises around 200 customers, including retirement plans, foundations and endowments, health systems and insurance companies, according to the announcement. It has around $828 million in regulatory assets under management, according to its Form ADV filings. The deal, which is expected to close in January, could significantly expand the institutional reach for Creative Planning, which oversees around $780 billion in assets, including around $485 billion under advisement. “Together, we’ll be able to bring even greater scale, resources and insight to institutions navigating increasingly complex investment and governance decisions,” Creative Planning President and CEO Peter Mallouk said in a statement. RVK is majority owned by Chair Rebecca A. Gratsinger and Chief Information Officer Scott P. Gratsinger with additional equity held by its employees. It is led by Josh Kevan, who replaced Gratsinger as CEO last year. All three will remain in their roles at RVK after the deal closes, according to the announcement. Additional terms of the deal were not disclosed. RIAs and wirehouses have been targeting retirement plan and institutional channels as potential sources of client referrals for retail advisors. Mallouk told a trade publication last year that Creative Planning is building a “bridge from wealth to retirement and retirement to wealth.” Creative Planning late last year purchased SageView Advisory Group, a California-based retirement aggregator overseeing around $250 billion across 11,800 plans. In 2023, it bought a $13 billion-AUA advisory business from Mesirow Financial Holdings and in 2021 purchased Lockton Retirement Services with around $110 billion under advisement. Creative Planning is majority-owned by Mallouk, who bought the firm in 2004 when it oversaw around $34 million. Its acquisition strategy has been funded in part by selling minority stakes to private equity firm General Atlantic and alternative asset manager TPG Capital.