Once the transaction is completed, CI expects to have about $50 billion in US assets and total assets of $212 billion.

CI Financial, the Toronto-based group, has bought yet another US registered investment advisor – Barrett Asset Management. The New York-based business mainly serves high net worth and ultra-HNW individuals and families, overseeing $2.5 billion of assets.

Once the transaction is completed, CI expects to have about $50 billion in US assets and total assets of $212 billion. Barrett represents CI’s second RIA in New York and expands CI’s scale in the financial center to more than $5.5 billion.

Barrett’s portfolio management expertise includes the management of two in-house mutual funds.

Since entering the US market last year, CI has acquired 15 RIA platforms (including transactions by affiliated RIAs). Once the Barrett and other outstanding transactions are completed, CI’s total North American wealth management assets are expected to be about $105 billion.

CI’s chief executive, Kurt MacAlpine, has been a driving force in the firm’s acquisition policy, at a time when there has been a number of M&A deals in the US wealth sector, as chronicled by firms such as ECHELON Partners and DeVoe & Company. 

Cambridge International Partners LLC served as the exclusive financial advisor to Barrett. This transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021, subject to regulatory and other customary closing conditions, CI Financial said.

In its home base of Canada, CI Financial earlier this week reported that its Canadian wealth management assets at C$69.5 billion had risen by 2.7 per cent in February and gained 41.5 per cent from a year ago.