Creative Planning adds $2.2B fee-only RIA Rockbridge in Syracuse

Peter Mallouk, president and CEO of Creative Planning.

The mega-RIA keeps absorbing independent fiduciary firms as Cerulli data shows the fee-only segment losing asset share

Creative Planning has acquired Rockbridge Investment Management, a fee-only fiduciary wealth manager in Syracuse, New York, adding about $2.2 billion in assets under management.

The deal brings Rockbridge’s 23 employees into Overland Park, Kansas-based Creative Planning, which reports more than $780 billion in assets under management or advisement as of June 30, 2026.

Regulatory AUM, the figure reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission, stood at roughly $296 billion in a July 2026 filing, according to AdvizorPro data.

Founded in 1991, Rockbridge provides retirement and financial planning, investment management, estate and insurance planning, business succession planning and tax coordination. Its clients will keep their current advisors while gaining access to Creative Planning’s affiliated tax preparation, legal, trust and retirement plan services.

“Rockbridge has built its reputation in Central New York on in-depth financial planning and a thoughtful client experience, and that commitment mirrors how we approach our work,” Peter Mallouk, Creative Planning’s president and chief executive, said in the announcement of the deal Wednesday.

Rockbridge CEO Patrick Rohe and Managing Partner David Carroll framed the sale around client demand for “coordinated services like estate planning and tax preparation.

“[J]oining Creative Planning allows us to bring that fully integrated experience, including dedicated CPAs and estate planning professionals, to our clients and the Syracuse community with the same focus on client experience and responsiveness that has defined Rockbridge,” Rohe and Carroll said in a joint statement.

Creative Planning’s 2026 deal calendar

Rockbridge is the latest addition to a platform that has pushed well beyond retail advice. In September, Creative Planning agreed to buy RVK, a Portland, Oregon-based institutional investment consultant advising on approximately $4.3 trillion in client assets, in a deal expected to close in January 2027. In July, it picked up Kansas City commercial insurance brokerage Lovell Insurance Group.

Earlier this year, the firm made its first moves overseas with Swiss RIA Baseline Wealth Management and London-based Maseco, which manages more than $5 billion. It also added Seattle’s Duncan & Haley, with about $660 million in assets. In 2025, it bought retirement plan consultant SageView Advisory Group.

When private equity firm General Atlantic took a minority stake in February 2020, Creative Planning managed $50 billion.

Fee-only fiduciaries losing asset share

The Rockbridge sale lands as the fee-only fiduciary model, in which the advisory fee is the only compensation a firm receives from clients, cedes ground to larger, more diversified rivals. Recent research by Cerulli found that true fee-only independent RIAs held 34% of assets among RIAs managing $5 billion or more at year-end 2025, down from 42% in 2020.

While the number of fee-only fiduciary firms has grown to 121 from 83 over five years, amounting to a 7.8% compound annual rate, independent RIAs with insurance capabilities grew 37.3% a year, to 36 firms from seven, while hybrid RIAs with brokerage businesses climbed to 186 from 104.

Clients appear to reward the model. Cerulli found 73% of affluent investors whose advisor must always act in their best interest are satisfied and not seeking a new provider, compared with 48% of those whose advisor may recommend products that put the advisor’s interests first.

“Their findings support our belief that the fee-only advice space is losing ground to alternative options,” said David Hefty, CEO of Credent Wealth Management, which commissioned the Cerulli report.

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