Corient expands Pacific Northwest footprint with $2B Bristlecone Advisors

Corient has acquired Bristlecone Advisors, a Bellevue, Washington-based RIA with roughly $2 billion in assets under management, marking its first deal for October and the fourth quarter.

The transaction extends Corient’s presence in the Pacific Northwest and adds a multi-family office with a focus on ultra-high- and high-net-worth clients.

Founded in 1999, Bristlecone Advisors provides wealth management and family office services, including financial planning, tax and estate support, philanthropy, and risk management. The firm’s approach blends personalized planning with a research-driven investment process.

In a statement Thursday, Kevin Berry, partner and managing member at Bristlecone, said the firm has long served as a “trusted partner and personal CFO for ultra-high and high-net-worth families.” Berry added that joining Corient was motivated by a desire to enhance Bristlecone’s service offering and operational capabilities.

He said Corient’s private partnership model provides “additional services, scale and resources” and a “formidable bench of talent with whom we can partner and collaborate to do more for clients.”

Kurt MacAlpine, partner and chief executive officer of Corient, described Bristlecone as an “excellent fit” for the firm, citing its “exceptional team, strong growth and established presence in the Pacific Northwest.”

MacAlpine said Bristlecone’s focus on ultra-high- and high-net-worth families and its commitment to fiduciary excellence align with Corient’s efforts to “reset the standard for what a modern multi-family office can deliver.”

The Bristlecone deal follows a couple of acquisitions for Corient last month, including Northeast Financial Consultants in Connecticut and Breed’s Hill Capital in Boston. It also recently disclosed an alliance with Stonehage Fleming and Stanhope Capital Group to expand its presence into Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

The US wealth arm of CI Financial, Corient established a reputation during the early 2020s as a prolific acquirer whose buying binge was supported by aggressive debt-taking. That created challenges for the Canadian-based financial giant at one point, with CI's share price dropping in 2022 to underperform its peers.

Since last year's announcement that its parent company would be taken private by Mubadala Capital, the firm has returned to the M&A space, build out its national footprint and deepening its family office capabilities with strategic acquisitions.

Headquartered in Miami, Corient is led by MacAlpine and operates as a fiduciary, fee-only wealth management firm. The company’s private partnership model is designed to foster collaboration among its more than 260 partners and 1,300 employees.

According to Barron’s, Corient is among the top mega-RIA firms in the US, with a median client size between $1 million and $10 million and a client base of approximately 20,000, though that number may have shifted with recent acquisitions.

Corient’s family office services include integrated financial planning, tax and trust support, personal CFO services, and lending solutions. The firm manages about $216 billion in assets as of July 2025, serving ultra-high- and high-net-worth individuals, families, and businesses nationwide.

MacAlpine, who's also CEO of CI, said late last year that a Corient IPO could be in the cards by 2026.

“We've been laser focused heads-down on driving maximum integration, maximum growth, really setting up the business to continue to scale, which we've done,” MacAlpine said. "But we'll continue to keep an eye on markets, see how the IPO market unfolds, and then look at the timing as it relates to all those factors."