Firm advances ambitious growth agenda with four acquisitions and minority stakes in two alternative investment managers
CI Financial Corp ended 2021 with a bang as it completed six previously announced transactions, including acquisitions of four U.S. registered investment advisor (RIA) firms and minority investments in two alternative investment firms.
The six transactions, which were completed as of December 31, 2021, are the latest steps – but not the last – in what’s been one of the boldest growth strategies pursued by a Canadian wealth firm in recent memory.
“The fun part is we’re still in the first inning,” CI CEO Kurt MacAlpine said in a November 2021 interview with Wealth Professional. “There’s a lot of work left to do to realize our collective aspiration.”
Adding almost US$24 billion in assets to its U.S. Private Wealth business and elevating its high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth offering, CI closed its previously announced acquisitions of:
- Columbia Pacific Wealth Management (CPWM) of Seattle;
- Gofen & Glossberg (Gofen) of Chicago;
- RegentAtlantic Capital (RegentAtlantic) of Morristown, New Jersey; and
- R.H. Bluestein & Co. (Bluestein) of Birmingham, Michigan.
CI has also enhanced its capabilities in alternative investments, an area of increasing interest to higher-net-worth clients, with the acquisition of minority stakes in Columbia Pacific Advisors (CPA) of Seattle, which manages a broad selection of institutional-calibre real estate, private equity, direct lending, opportunistic, and hedged strategies; and GLAS Funds, LLC (GLASfunds) of Cleveland, a tech-enabled platform providing secure and streamlined digital access to institutional-quality alternative investment opportunities.
2021 has been a productive year for CI and its fast-growing CI Private Wealth platform, which now consists of US$115 billion in assets across 23 RIAs in key U.S. metropolitan areas. With that, the firm’s U.S. private wealth unit is officially its largest line of business by assets.
“We are looking forward to another incredible year as we execute on our vision and continue to bring our clients a world-class wealth management experience,” MacAlpine said in a statement.
