In response to the coronavirus, Creative Planning, the RIA out of Overland Park, Kan., is providing local charity Harvesters—The Community Food Network with a $1 million donation to deliver food to families who can’t afford it.
Peter Mallouk, the company’s president and chief investment officer, told WealthManagement.com that he and his wife, Veronica, had been making a personal donation of $500,000 a year to the charity but upped the ante to fight the global pandemic in Creative Planning’s backyard.
Specifically, he said, Harvesters will deliver food to families of children who rely on their schools—which are now closed—for three meals a day. The deliveries will take place through stations set up in a 26-county area of northeastern Missouri and northwestern Kansas.
“They have a system in place so families can pull up in cars and food can be placed in their trunks,” said Mallouk.
“When this crisis came about we first made sure we were helping our clients, and then looked at which part of the community had the greatest need. This stood out as something where we could make a very quick difference for people who need it,” said Mallouk.
He added that he hopes the donation will feed around 20,000 people and last for well over a month.
Meanwhile, Mallouk said Creative Planning's advisors and employees have been working “largely from home.” He said he has also instituted a policy whereby hourly employees who can’t come up with 40 billable hours per week will still get the entirety of their 40-hour paycheck, essentially guaranteeing them income, and that the firm will not lay off any workers “even if this goes on for several years.”
Creative’s two conferences this year, one for employees and one for advisors, which are set to take place in September, have not been changed.