Creative Planning buys Mesirow's $13B corporate retirement practice

Creative Planning, one of the largest registered investment advisors in the country, has added to its M&A streak with another acquisition. 

The Overland Park, Kansas-based RIA announced Tuesday that it was buying the corporate retirement advisory services team at Mesirow, a Chicago-based financial services firm. The corporate retirement practice has around $13 billion of assets, both under management and advisement, as of July 1. The team is led by David Dermenjian, Chris Pohlman, Vince Allegra and Chuck Lawless, according to a press release Tuesday. The lead advisors completed their move to Creative Planning on Oct. 10, according to SEC records. 

The news comes as Creative Planning, which reported over $245 billion of total client assets as of July, works to integrate several other recent acquisitions, most notably its August deal to buy the former United Capital from Goldman Sachs that is scheduled to close this quarter. Creative Planning also announced its purchase of Bloomington, Minnesota-based $2.5 billion RIA BerganKDV in June and $1.4 billion RIA Kistler-Tiffany Advisors in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, earlier in October. 

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"Their commitment to tailoring financial solutions while championing social responsibility aligns perfectly with our values," Peter Mallouk, CEO of Creative Planning, said of the Mesirow team in a statement in the release. "They are well-equipped to address the retirement needs of plan sponsors, plan participants, investors, and non-qualified plans." 

READ MORE: Creative Planning's Peter Mallouk on buying Goldman's wealth unit 

Dermenjian, the head of the team, said in the release that joining Creative Planning offered more resources to his growing practice. It "allows us to deliver a new set of products, solutions and technologies to our current and future clients, and we're excited to be part of one of the largest independent RIAs in the country."

The team from Mesirow will augment Creative Planning's Retirement Services Practice, which currently reports over $137 billion in assets under advisement. The firm offers workplace retirement solutions to a wide range of employers with plans, including "publicly traded companies, large private corporations, small businesses, startups, as well as government entities such as cities, municipalities, and housing developments," the press release said.