Peter Mallouk’s registered investment advisory, Creative Planning, has picked up another Midwest firm.
In a Tuesday announcement, the $76 billion AUM Creative Planning announced its acquisition of Castle Wealth Advisors, an Indianapolis-based firm with three business lines and $320 million in assets under management.
“I got to the point that I wanted to protect all of our clients—and we have clients in all 50 states—and all the employees that work here and all the families that depend on Castle Wealth Advisors,” said Gary Pittsford, founder of Castle Wealth Advisors.
Pittsford wanted to scale his firm quickly and spent eight months interviewing different companies to join before making the deal with Creative Planning.
Castle Wealth works with high-income earners such as corporate executives and physicians, but within the last 15 years has attracted more business owners. In 2001, Pittsford started a sub-business focused on providing owners with business valuations, asset management and estate planning. That business line has accumulated about 2,000 clients, he said. The service was appealing to Mallouk.
“We have thousands of clients that are business owners, and we were not doing business valuations,” said Mallouk. “It was something that we were looking to get into. And it gives us a turnkey solution from a firm that’s been doing it for decades and has a lot of credentialed and qualified people on staff.”
Castle Wealth Advisors gives Creative Planning 18 more employees; eight from the valuation unit and 10 in the wealth management division, and an additional Chicago location. Though details of the transaction were not disclosed, Mallouk said part of the deal was financed with equity and Pittsford joins 84 other employees as shareholders. Mallouk announced in March that he opened equity to 10% of Creative Planning's workforce.
Pittsford, a 74-year-old Army veteran, has run Castle Wealth since 1973.
“In 1970, I worked for Richard Nixon," he said. "And I haven’t worked for anybody since, except for the last five days I’ve been working for Peter."