As noted by FWR a few weeks ago, the US may be grappling with a pandemic, a recession and civil unrest, but global financial institutions are finding the American wealth management market as attractive as ever. The latest deal involves Canada's CI Financial.

OCM Capital Partners, which is a subsidiary of Canada’s s CI Financial, has agreed to buy Californian wealth advisor Thousand Oaks Financial Corporation, a move playing to a trend of non-US firms buying American businesses in this sector.

The RIA, a registered investment advisor firm based in Thousand Oaks, operates under the name Professional Planning; it was founded by Melvyn Nachman in 1973.

Professional Planning has about $440 million in assets under management (as at June 30, 2020). The firm's financial advisor team will integrate into the One Capital Management advisory team, CI Financial said in a statement yesterday. The transaction is expected to close in September 2020. Terms were not disclosed.

"This arrangement provides continuity for Professional Planning's clients while giving them and their advisors access to the additional services and support of a larger firm," Patrick Bowen, OCM President, said. 

CI purchased a majority interest in OCM earlier this year as part of a strategy to build a growing wealth management business in the US through the acquisition of select registered investment advisor firms across the nation.

As noted in a feature article by Family Wealth Report, a number of foreign firms have sought to tap into the US wealth management sector. 

CI has been busy in its acquisition strategy. To date, CI has acquired or agreed to acquire interests in four RIAs with combined total assets of $6.0 billion (as at June 30, 2020).

Professional Planning's operations include a specialization in meeting the planning needs of professional animators, a fit with OCM's practice serving members of the sports and entertainment industries.

One Capital Management is an RIA with about $1.9 billion in client assets. CI Financial, which is listed in Toronto, has about $179 billion in fee-earning assets (as of June 30). CI's primary asset management businesses are CI Investments and GSFM Pty and it operates in wealth management through Assante Wealth Management (Canada) Ltd, CI Private Counsel LP, WealthBar Financial Services Inc, BBS Securities Inc, The Cabana Group, LLC, Congress Wealth Management, One Capital Management, LLC and Surevest LLC.