The spending spree of this group has been one of the most eye-catching M&A drives in North America’s wealth management sector. Predominantly, the activity has centered on buying stakes in, or complete ownership of, RIAs.

CI Private Wealth, the business formed by Canadian parent CI Financial after a rapid series of M&A deals in the US wealth space, is rebranding as Corient.

The new name is derived from “client oriented,” the firm said yesterday. CI Financial continues to use the CI Private Wealth brand for its Canadian ultra-high net worth wealth management business.
 

“The Corient brand embodies our mission to put our clients at the center of everything we do. We exist for one reason: to help our clients achieve their financial goals, simplify their lives and establish legacies that will last for generations,” Kurt MacAlpine, chief executive of Corient and CI Financial, said in a statement. “The new name better reflects the extensive capabilities we offer today as a national, integrated organization and our vision to become the country’s pre-eminent private wealth firm.”

Corient serves as the brand for all the company’s offices, as it has discontinued co-branding with its legacy firm names, effective immediately. 

“In the short time since our founding, we have accomplished much on behalf of our clients that would not have been possible for most independent firms. We established a tax practice and a trust company, we have delivered better investment pricing and lending rates, and we significantly strengthened our alternative investments platform,” MacAlpine said.

Since CI Financial entered the US RIA sector in 2020, it has become one of the industry’s fastest-growing wealth platforms through acquisitions and strong organic growth. Today, the US wealth management business has $147 billion in assets under management. 

As reported in May this year, CI Financial closed its previously-announced sale of a 20 per cent minority investment in its US wealth management business. The stake was sold to institutions including a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Bain Capital, Flexpoint Ford, Ares Management funds, the State of Wisconsin, and others for about C$1.34 billion ($1.0 billion). The organization, as reported here, has also sold some stakes in wealth firms. For example, at the start of May it agreed to sell a minority stake in Congress Wealth Management to Audax Private Equity. The sale increased industry speculation about CI’s stated intention to spin out its RIA business through an IPO.

 A desire for economies of scale to deal with rising regulatory costs and tech spending, and the willingness of firms to sell, have fueled the process. Questions remain about how much of this consolidation will bear fruit. Recent figures suggest that the M&A trend is slowing down, affected by rising interest rates and economic uncertainties.