A NEW CHAPTER BEGINS: GILBERT & COOK JOINS CERITY PARTNERS

For more than three decades, Gilbert & Cook has grown by putting genuine relationships at the center of our work—helping clients find clarity amid financial complexity and the confidence to make important choices about their wealth and future. Today, we are proud to begin the next chapter of that story as part of Cerity Partners.

Effective September 30, 2026, Gilbert & Cook has officially joined Cerity Partners, a nationally recognized wealth management firm that shares our commitment to putting clients first, building lasting relationships and providing thoughtful, sophisticated advice.

This is an exciting milestone for our firm—but more importantly, an intentional investment in how we serve our clients today and for generations to come.

Built on a Shared Commitment to Clients

Recently, Gilbert & Cook Founder and Managing Partner Linda Cook sat down with Cerity Partners Founder and CEO Kurt Miscinski for a conversation about what brought our two firms together, what clients can expect moving forward and what excites them most about the possibilities ahead.

For Kurt, what stood out about Gilbert & Cook began with our people. He points to the quality, integrity and compassion of the Gilbert & Cook team, as well as the care our leadership has consistently demonstrated for both clients and colleagues.

Throughout the process of getting to know one another, he noticed that Gilbert & Cook's questions repeatedly came back to two priorities:

• How will this help us better serve our clients?
• And how will it create opportunities to develop the next generation of our team?

Those questions reflect something fundamental about Gilbert & Cook. Growth has never simply been about becoming bigger. It has been about continually becoming better for the people we serve.

What Stays the Same

We understand that an announcement like this naturally brings questions—particularly for clients who have trusted Gilbert & Cook and their advisory team for many years.

The most important message we can share is this: the people and trusted relationships you know remain the same.

Clients will continue to be served by the Gilbert & Cook professionals they work with today. Our commitment to personal relationships, collaborative advice and exceptional service remains at the heart of how we work.

“We view our merger with Gilbert & Cook as an opportunity to be a better firm together than if we were apart. We do not have any interest in merging with a firm that we wish to change. By merging, we will evolve together as colleagues and partners, always asking how we can better serve our clients and develop the next generation of colleagues.” — Kurt Miscinski, Founder & CEO, Cerity Partners

As our firms come together, that shared commitment gives us the opportunity to preserve what clients value about Gilbert & Cook while continuing to evolve and find new ways to add value.

What Becomes Possible

While much of what our clients value about Gilbert & Cook remains unchanged, the possibilities surrounding those relationships have grown.

Cerity Partners brings significant national resources and specialized expertise that complement the capabilities already available through Gilbert & Cook. Together, we have greater depth across traditional wealth management needs such as financial planning, investment management, estate and tax planning, tax preparation and insurance planning, as well as broader family office and personal financial administration services.

The combined organization also creates opportunities to connect clients with an expanded network of resources and relationships—from banking and trust services to connections that may provide value to their businesses, philanthropic interests, families and lives beyond their investment portfolios.

From Gilbert & Cook’s perspective, that expanded depth is particularly exciting because client needs don't stand still. Families evolve. Businesses grow and transition. Wealth becomes increasingly complex. Technology creates new opportunities. And the questions clients bring to us today may look very different from those they bring to us five, ten or twenty years from now.

Being part of Cerity Partners strengthens our ability to grow alongside them.

Investing in the Next Generation

One of Gilbert & Cook's greatest strengths has always been the depth of our team and the collaborative approach we bring to serving clients. Joining Cerity Partners creates even greater opportunities for our professionals to learn, specialize and grow throughout their careers.

Through expanded education, training and professional development, our team will have access to new resources and colleagues from across the organization. That investment in our people ultimately creates an even deeper bench of knowledge and experience for the families we serve.

And as Linda makes clear during the conversation, this next chapter isn't about stepping away from Gilbert & Cook.

When clients have asked whether the merger means she is retiring, her answer has been simple: “Absolutely not.”

Linda and the Gilbert & Cook team remain deeply committed to our clients, our colleagues and the Greater Des Moines community.

Looking Forward, Together

Since Gilbert & Cook was founded in 1993, our firm has continued to grow and evolve. But the foundation has remained remarkably consistent: listen generously, build genuine relationships, bring sophisticated thinking to complex financial lives, and help clients move forward with greater clarity and confidence.

That foundation isn't changing. What is changing is the depth of resources, expertise and opportunity surrounding it.

As Gilbert & Cook becomes part of Cerity Partners, we are incredibly proud of everything that brought us to this moment—and even more excited about where we can go from here!

We invite you to watch Linda and Kurt's conversation to hear, in their own words, why our firms chose one another, what this partnership means for our clients and team, and what they envision for the future.