Creative Planning, the Overland Park, Kansas-based registered investment advisor overseeing roughly $700 billion in client assets, has added a commercial insurance brokerage to its growing roster of specialty acquisitions.
The firm announced the purchase of Lovell Insurance Group, a Kansas City-based brokerage known for handling complex commercial insurance, surety and risk-management work for upper middle-market businesses.
Three Lovell principals – John Lovell, Mike Pernice and Georgia Williams – are joining Creative Planning as part of the transaction.
The move gives the mega-RIA direct in-house access to commercial insurance and surety expertise, adding to a services roster that already spans accounting, tax, legal work, mergers and acquisitions advisory, technology, payroll, retirement planning and wealth management.
Creative Planning President and CEO Peter Mallouk framed the deal as a natural extension of the firm's integrated-services model.
"John, Mike and Georgia have built an outstanding business by putting clients first and delivering exceptional expertise in commercial insurance," Mallouk said in the announcement, undescoring the newly enhanced "[ability] to provide business owners with an even more comprehensive, coordinated approach to managing risk and achieving their long-term financial goals."
For his part, Lovell – who takes on the title of partner and director of sales, commercial insurance, at Creative Planning – described the deal as a chance to plug his firm's risk-management specialty into a much larger platform that also integrates wealth management, tax planning, estate planning, retirement plan consulting and investment advisory services.
"By joining forces with Creative Planning, we're now able to deliver even greater value through their outstanding insurance capabilities, deep resources, and exceptional production and service talent already within the firm."
The Lovell deal lands amid one of the most active stretches of dealmaking in the RIA industry more broadly. Strategic acquirers, primarily RIAs buying other RIAs, made up 95.1% of all transactions in the first quarter of 2026, with RIA buyers alone announcing 106 deals during the period. Echelon Partners data showed $1.67 trillion in assets changed hands industry-wide during that quarter, more than double the year-earlier tally.
In January, the firm completed its first cross-border acquisition, picking up Swiss RIA Baseline Wealth Management, which added more than $1 billion in assets along with offices in Geneva and Zurich. Two months later, the firm followed with the acquisition of MASECO, a London-based RIA managing more than $5 billion in assets that specializes in cross-border planning for American families living abroad.
In March, the firm added Seattle-based RIA Duncan & Haley, which managed about $660 million in assets, and in June it announced an agreement to acquire MarkhamNorton Accountants+Advisors, a Southwest Florida accounting and advisory firm with more than 45 years of history serving businesses and families in the region.
New trading tools let advisors execute and rebalance client portfolios directly, while firms retain permission-based control.
New ADP-delivered solution gives small and mid-size businesses access to 3(38) fiduciary oversight and participant-level advice for one fee.
Boston Hill Advisors joins Hightower's national platform as the mega-RIA's latest Massachusetts move drives HTSW closer to its $50 billion target for 2026.
Feathery's Robin builds compliant operational workflows from plain-language instructions with no coding or IT teams required.
Nearly one in four newly minted billion-dollar startups this year operates in artificial intelligence, reshaping private market opportunity for advisors.
Northern Trust’s Ken Lassner shows advisors how to convert volatility into after-tax portfolio gains
Dan Biagini of American Equity says the steady decline of pensions, longer lifespans and a reset in interest rates are rewriting how advisors build retirement income
