By Kenneth Corbin

Creative Planning, a large registered investment advisory firm, has made its first international acquisition, snapping up Switzerland-based Baseline Wealth Management. The deal closed Jan. 8.

Baseline has offices in Geneva and Zurich, and its staff of 14 manages more than $1 billion in client assets.

The firm caters to high-net-worth individuals around the world, including professional athletes and entrepreneurs. The firm's CEO, Thierry Grin, had a brief career as a professional tennis player.

Creative Planning CEO Peter Mallouk suggests in a statement that this marks the beginning of a European campaign rather than a one-off acquisition.

"We're absolutely thrilled to have Baseline join Creative Planning for our initial expansion into Europe," he says. Baseline serves some U.S. clients, and Mallouk said the firm shares Creative's "core values of integrity, transparency, and a strong fiduciary responsibility to clients."

A Creative Planning spokeswoman declined to comment when asked about Creative Planning's overall strategy for Europe, whether it has an acquisition pipeline, and when the firm might release more news about European acquisitions.

Baseline is registered as a portfolio manager with the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. It also maintains registrations with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Canadian Securities Administrators.

Creative took a step toward expanding its international operations in 2020 with the acquisition of Thun Financial Advisors, a then-$600 million firm catering to U.S. clients living overseas. Thun was owned by David Kuenzi, who now serves as Creative's international director of wealth management.

He argues that there is an appetite in Europe for the U.S.-style independent RIA advice model that is grounded in a fiduciary duty and offers access to a broad menu of investment products.

"The European market is currently dominated by proprietary product sales by banks with virtually no planning or fiduciary standard -- and it can't be fully served from the United States," Kuenzi says. "Europeans want to work with Europeans, in their language and in their time zone."

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January 13, 2026 14:57 ET (19:57 GMT)

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