Creative Planning is acquiring Edmonds Duncan, a $550 million RIA whose Lawrence, Kan., location is 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 the RIA, led by Peter Mallouk.
In a statement about the deal, the Creative Planning CEO said Edmonds Duncan excelled in “delivering a personalized approach” similar to the larger RIA.
“Their strong foundation and local presence in our home state significantly extends Creative Planning’s reach,” Mallouk said.
According to SEC records, 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 extend 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 and service philosophies, 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 for the sale.
In late September, TPG Capital announced it would make a “substantial” minority investment in Mallouk’s $375 billion firm. TPG joined existing investor General Atlantic, which kept its minority stake. TPG said it’s capital “additional resources and expertise” for Creative Planning (Mallouk retained his majority stake in the company).
The deal was announced several 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 deal this year after acquiring ML&R Wealth Management in April. The Texas-based RIA’s 18 employees managed about $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 buying Mesirow’s retirement services business and Goldman Sachs Personal Financial Management, previously United Capital.
