Creative Planning acquires $5 billion Wipfli Financial Advisors

Creative Planning is undertaking its third-largest acquisition ever with the addition of Wipfli Financial Advisors, a Milwaukee-based firm managing $5 billion worth of client assets.

The deal, which closes Sept. 30, brings with it 95 employees and a connection to top 20 accounting firm Wipfli LLP, from which the advisory business is being spun off.

“This is a major, major deal,” said Peter Mallouk, Creative Planning’s chief executive.

“Wipfli makes us more competitive in a lot of markets,” he added. “There will be a strategic partnership now where Wipfli will be referring wealth management clients.”

The transaction includes Wipfli Financial Advisors' digital investment solution, Avid, as well as its retirement plan services group. They will complement Creative Planning's recent acquisition of Lockton Retirement Services and its emerging wealth division.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed beyond a note that “Wipfli LLP will maintain a significant minority ownership stake in the venture.”

Wipfli LLP started Wipfli Financial Advisors in 1999 with a mission to make objective, fiduciary-focused financial advice available to the everyday investor, according to the announcement.

"Their presence in Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Montana, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin will help us better serve our clients throughout the U.S.," Mallouk said. “From our first conversations with [Wipfli Financial principal and CEO] Jeff Pierce and the rest of the Wipfli Financial team, it was evident that this was a perfect match. Wipfli Financial shares the same core values that we instill at Creative Planning, and we are excited to hit the ground running."

Creative Planning has already closed more than a dozen deals this year, and Mallouk said he sees “more deals coming across my desk than ever.”

Firms are coming to market, he added, because of the pressure to gain scale in an environment that experienced very little organic growth over the past few years.

“There’s a huge number of transactions in this industry, and the number of firms capable and interested in acquiring has tripled over the last couple of years,” he said.

Mallouk said a key driver behind the deals is all the deal activity.

“A lot of these people are seeing firms show up in their backyard with all these capabilities,” he said. “The space is getting increasingly competitive, most RIAs are not growing at all, and there’s some awareness that to compete you have to be able to grow.”