Creative Planning has made its first international acquisition, adding Baseline Wealth Management, a Swiss registered investment advisor with 14 employees and over $1 billion in assets under management, the Kansas-based firm announced Tuesday.
Baseline, which serves high-net-worth individuals globally, including entrepreneurs and professional athletes, has offices in Geneva and Zurich. Comments by Creative Planning President and CEO Peter Mallouk hint that the deal for Baseline is a first step toward further growth in Europe.
"We're absolutely thrilled to have Baseline join Creative Planning for our initial expansion into Europe," Peter Mallouk said. "We've long recognized the large international demand for Creative Planning's unique financial planning model. In addition to Baseline's extensive experience serving international and U.S. clients, they also share our core values of integrity, transparency and a strong fiduciary responsibility to clients."
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority licenses Baseline as a portfolio manager. The firm also registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as an RIA and with the Canadian Securities Administrators, and is licensed to manage extra-mandatory Swiss retirement solutions for private clients.
"Joining forces with Creative Planning provides our clients with access to Creative Planning's comprehensive suite of services while also allowing Creative Planning to offer a Swiss wealth management solution," Baseline CEO Thierry Grin said.
"Peter's vision, sustained success and visionary leadership, along with his extraordinary team, including David Kuenzi and talented M&A advisors, gave me confidence that joining forces was the right next step for our organization," Grin added.
Creative Planning noted its international business expansion started with its 2020 acquisition of Thun Financial Advisors, a Wisconsin-based RIA serving Americans living abroad owned at the time by Kuenzi, now Creative Planning's international wealth management director.
"The Baseline team adds significant value to Creative Planning's international wealth management business. The European market is currently dominated by proprietary product sales by banks with virtually no planning or fiduciary standard — and it can't be fully served from the United States," Kuenzi said.
"Europeans want to work with Europeans, in their language and in their time zone. Thierry and Peter share a similar vision of bringing comprehensive wealth management to Europe and the rest of the world. I've been truly honored to work with Peter and Thierry to bring our teams together," he added.
RIA Creative Planning and its affiliates had about $700 billion in combined assets under management and advisement across all 50 states and 90 countries as of Dec. 31.
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