CI Financial Continues US Wealth Shopping Spree

Tom Burroughes

25 October 2021

CI Financial continued its run of US wealth management acquisitions, with a deal announced last Friday to buy McCutchen Group. The business, a multi-family office set up as an RIA, concentrates on ultra-high net worth clients, and oversees a total of $3.4 billion in assets.

McCutchen is based in Seattle and was founded in 2007.

Canada-based CI Financial has bought a mass of US firms as part of an expansion strategy it kicked off at the start of 2020. The latest transaction is expected to boost CI’s US wealth management assets to approximately $83 billion , with CI’s total assets globally amounting to approximately $260 billion .

“McCutchen Group is CI’s first office in the Pacific Northwest and provides a solid foundation for continued growth in that region,” Kurt MacAlpine, CI chief executive, said.

The asset and wealth management investment banking group of Raymond James & Associates, acted as financial advisor to McCutchen Group and Perkins Coie served as legal advisor. CI’s legal advisor was Hogan Lovells US.

This transaction, the financial terms of which were not disclosed, is expected to close later this year, subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions.

Among recent transactions, CI Financial completed an acquisition of Portola Partners Group at the end of September. Portola is a Menlo Park, California-based registered investment advisor serving ultra-high net worth clients. That transaction added C$6.7 billion to CI’s wealth management assets. On October 1 it completed its purchase of Budros, Ruhlin & Roe, an RIA based in Columbus, Ohio, with about C$4.4 billion in assets.

CI’s primary asset management businesses are CI Global Asset Management and GSFM Pty, which operates in Canadian wealth management through CI Assante Wealth Management ), CI Private Counsel, Aligned Capital Partners, and CI Direct Investing , and CI Investment Services.

CI’s US wealth management businesses consist of Barrett Asset Management, BDF, Budros, Ruhlin & Roe, Bowling Portfolio Management, Brightworth, The Cabana Group, Congress Wealth Management, Dowling & Yahnke, Doyle Wealth Management, One Capital Management, Portola Partners Group, Radnor Financial Advisors, The Roosevelt Investment Group, RGT Wealth Advisors, Segall, Bryant & Hamill, Stavis & Cohen Private Wealth, and Surevest.