Corient enters Cayman Islands with $2.6B FortCay acquisition

Corient is extending its international acquisition streak yet again with the addition of FortCay Family Advisory, a Cayman Islands wealth manager and multi-family office overseeing about $2.6 billion for 14 ultra-high-net-worth families.

The deal gives the Miami-based firm its first foothold in one of the world's most important jurisdictions for holding and administering private wealth.

The deal announced Wednesday morning is the latest in a run of cross-border transactions that has taken Corient into Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Canada within a one-year period.

Corient didn't disclose financial terms.

FortCay was founded by Billy Harty and Matt Houghton. It provides wealth management, estate planning and family office services to a small roster of families. And while its book is modest relative to the roughly $572 billion in client assets reported by Corient, it offers a strategic stake in one of the most popular hot spots for the uber-wealthy.

"A meaningful share of the world's most complex family wealth is structured and administered in the Cayman Islands," said Kurt MacAlpine, Corient's founding partner and chief executive. "Many of our clients live, work, and invest across borders – establishing a presence in Cayman deepens our ability to serve them."

Harty, FortCay's founder and managing director, said the firms' values and Corient's ownership structure drove the decision.

"From the start, we felt that Corient shared our high standards and our commitment to putting clients first," Harty said. "Their partnership model gives us access to the depth and scale of a global firm while creating new opportunities for our clients.

Wealthy families often hold assets through trusts, holding companies and investment vehicles domiciled in the Cayman Islands. Without a physical footprint, Corient has had to serve those structures from outside the jurisdiction. Now with a team on the ground, the firm can potentially offer that capability to clients in its other offices.

The Cayman move follows a steady cadence of sequence of deals Corient has inked outside the U.S. over the past 12 months. In September last year, it struck a two-firm deal that added more than $214 billion in client assets from Stonehage Fleming and Stanhope. That extended its presence across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Fast forward to April, the PE-backed mega-acquirer announced it had agreed to buy the Bedrock Group, a Geneva-based multi-family office, which reports $10.7 billion in client assets across offices in London, Monaco and Lisbon. That same month, Corient revealed plans to launch in Canada that would take off with about C$10 billion in assets from Northwood Family Office and Coriel Capital, along with advisors moving over from CI Private Wealth, the wealth arm of Corient's Canadian parent organization CI Financial.

In June, Corient confirmed a deal for Letus Private Office, a Paris-based firm overseeing about €4.1 billion (roughly $5 billion) that specializes in complex holdings such as vineyards, hotels, aircraft and yachts.

More broadly across the RIA M&A space, consultancy firm DeVoe & Company counted 167 RIA transactions in the first half of 2026, above the previous first-half record of 148, and ranked Corient among the ten most acquisitive firms. For its part, Echelon Partners credited Corient with seven deals of $1 billion or more in 2025.