And then there was one.<\/p>\n
Creative Planning\u2019s blockbuster acquisition<\/a> of the $250 billion retirement-focused RIA SageView Advisory Group will create a massive firm with $640 billion in total client assets and 550 advisors, according to a statement. It is also one of the largest deals to date in an industry experiencing unprecedented levels of M&A<\/a>. Experts said it\u2019s a harbinger of future multi-trillion dollar deals to come, particularly in the retirement planning segment.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe were two of the top retirement plan consulting providers in the United States, and now, we\u2019re a formidable force together,\u201d Creative Planning President and CEO Peter Mallouk told The Daily Upside. \u201cThe retirement plan space is consolidating extremely rapidly \u2026 You\u2019re going to have just a few players working with most of the retirement plans.\u201d<\/p>\n SUBSCRIBE:\u00a0 Receive more of our free Advisor Upside<\/a> newsletter. READ ALSO:\u00a0There Are Now More PE Funds Than McDonald\u2019s Franchises. What\u2019s Behind the Alts Explosion?<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Wealth and Asset Units for BlackRock, Goldman and More Shine in Q3<\/a><\/p>\n The Creative Planning purchase comes at the height of wealth management M&A, as deal sizes grow both in terms of AUM and advisor headcount. The number of transactions in the first half of this year was 132, which is\u00a025% more than from the same period last year, according to Fidelity. RIA consolidators, which acquire and integrate RIAs, have also grown<\/a> considerably over the last decade and now account for $1.5 trillion in assets. Still, the latest deal is an outlier. \u201cCreative Planning is creating a monster,\u201d said Fred Barstein, CEO of The Retirement Advisor University. \u201cIt\u2019s just huge.\u201d<\/p>\n Other recent mega-deals include:<\/p>\n LPL Financial\u2019s acquisition<\/a> of $100 billion Atria Wealth Solutions.<\/p>\n Pathstone\u2019s purchase<\/a> of the $45 billion firm Hall Capital Partners.<\/p>\n The RIA industry has entered a new stage of consolidation, according to Barstein. The first stage occurs when one firm starts building a monopoly, like Fidelity did in the \u201890s with recordkeeping, he said. The second stage happens alongside a flurry of activity and integrations, with firms focused primarily on scale. The third stage is where Barstein thinks the RIA industry is headed now: fewer but increasingly large acquisitions that maximize profit. \u201cIt starts winnowing down who\u2019s gonna be able to make it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Convergence Point. The Creative Planning mega-deal also represents the continued convergence of wealth and retirement planning. Defined contribution plans and 401(k)s have a combined $13 trillion, with IRAs representing $18 trillion, Barstein said,\u00a0a vast pool of potentially untapped assets. Fees are generally lower in the 401(k) world, but RIAs might leverage retirement plans to pull in new clients, he added. \u201cCreative Planning is leaning into this in a big way \u2014\u00a0more than their other competitors,\u201d Barstein said. \u201cIt has caused [other] RIAs to say, \u2018Maybe I\u2019m missing something here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n This post first appeared on The Daily Upside<\/a>. To receive financial advisor news, market insights, and practice management essentials, subscribe to our free Advisor Upside<\/a> newsletter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And then there was one. Creative Planning\u2019s blockbuster acquisition of the $250 billion retirement-focused RIA SageView Advisory Group…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,136424,186,136425,184,185,39930,6541],"class_list":{"0":"post-225106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-creative-planning","12":"tag-finance","13":"tag-fred-barstein","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-personalfinance","16":"tag-retirement-plan","17":"tag-retirement-planning"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}