Marking another step in Corient’s global expansion, the Miami-headquartered firm is extending its private partnership to support the needs of wealthy Canadian families. 

Corient, the acquisitive US-headquartered wealth management firm, yesterday announced plans to expand into Canada.

With this expansion, Corient said it will become the largest non-bank wealth manager and multi-family office serving ultra-high net worth individuals and families in North America. The business will be launched in June 2026 under the Corient brand, subject to regulatory approvals.

“We see a clear gap in the Canadian market for a global independent wealth manager capable of delivering the comprehensive advice required by wealthy individuals and families – including investment management, wealth strategy and family office solutions,” said Kurt MacAlpine, founding partner and CEO of Corient. “Corient was purposely built to meet that need and close that gap.”

Corient will enter Canada with significant momentum, launching with about C$10 billion ($7.3 billion) in assets from previously acquired firms Northwood Family Office and Coriel Capital, as well as select CI Private Wealth advisors who will become Corient Partners. Globally, Corient will manage and administer about C$650 billion in client assets, allowing Canadian clients to benefit from its significant scale, capabilities and purchasing power.

“Our partnership structure was carefully designed to foster collaboration over competition, in order to bring the full strength of the firm’s expertise and capabilities to every client relationship with zero internal friction,” said MacAlpine.

The announcement is another step in Corient’s global expansion. Corient previously announced agreements to acquire three European wealth management firms: Stonehage Fleming, Stanhope Capital Group and the Bedrock Group. Those additions will establish a presence for Corient across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. (See more here.)

“In just six years, we have become the largest integrated wealth management firm in the US, are establishing a significant presence across EMEA, and are now entering Canada – not as a series of transactions, but as a deliberate global build,” MacAlpine added.

The rise of Corient is part of a trend of M&A consolidation happening in the domestic North American and wider international wealth management sector. As reported in February, wealth management industry transactions such as those involving RIAs clocked up another record last year, according to US-based ECHELON Partners, an investment bank and advisory firm which monitors the sector. In August 2023, Canada's CI Financial rebranded its CI Private Wealth business under the Corient brand. This wealth management group has grown rapidly by a mass of acquisitions of RIAs in the US and Canada, starting in 2020. In November 2024, CI Financial was taken private in a deal backed by Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Capital.

(Editor's note: rapid growth can bring challenges. Such has been the pace and extent of Corient's expansion – the firm itself was formed from the CI Financial wealth management buying spree that started six years earlier -– that there will be a point at which the firm must focus on integration, establishing a good "culture," and ensuring that end clients' services are improved. We have seen from the recent travails of AITi Global – the multi-family office that has expanded via international expansion – that managing growth on this scale is not easy.)