Creative Planning Acquires Sunrise Advisors

Creative Planning, which made its first acquisition only last year, continues its recent shopping spree.

The large RIA said it was buying Sunrise Advisors, which is based in Leawood, Kan., and manages about $700 million in client assets. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in a news release.

This is the company's seventh deal in 2020, InvestmentNews reports. And it’s the company’s first local acquisition, the publication also writes. Leawood abuts Creative Planning’s home base of Overland Park, Kan.

Dave Scott, the chairman of Sunrise Advisors, said Creative Planning’s “holistic planning approach” made it a “natural fit” for his firm.

"Creative Planning has a very similar culture to ours with no products being pushed and serves as a fiduciary all the time," Dave Scott told the Kansas City Business Journal. "Them having holistic services just surpassed what Sunrise could offer by ourselves. We thought it would be better for our clients moving forward. In the past, when we needed a corporate trustee we had to go to a competitor. Not only in the trustee business, but in other areas as well, so the holistic approach really makes sense. It binds the client to a group that acts in the right way all the time, in their best interests, and that fits very well."

Under the leadership of CEO Peter Mallouk, Creative Planning had grown sans acquisitions, into a heavyweight RIA with about $38 billion in AUM by February 2019. That’s when it shifted its growth strategy with its first purchase of another RIA: The Johnston Group. It completed three more deals last year.

Earlier this year, Creative Planning sold a minority stake in its business to General Atlantic, a New York-based private-equity shop, in order to help fuel continued expansion.

Creative Planning says it now manages about $48 billion in assets across all 50 states.