After announcing this month that it was moving to use a new brand name, Corient, for its U.S. wealth management unit, CI Financial Corp. said Thursday it was moving forward with a consolidation of separate offices in Boston, Chicago and Miami.
Earlier this year, Toronto-based CI said it was consolidating its registered investment advisor operations in New York, moving two firms into one new midtown Manhattan location.
It wasn't clear how many financial advisors will be affected by the office space realignment.
CI Financial, which now has $147 billion in U.S. RIA assets under management, has been one of the most active buyers of registered investment advisors in the United States the past few years, even as the market to buy RIAs has seen increased competition and higher valuations.
It's a common business practice for an active acquirer of firms like CI Financial to integrate and overhaul operations.
“We have a few different offices we are integrating kind of in parallel," said Kurt MacAlpine, CEO of Corient and CI Financial Corp., said Thursday morning during a conference call with analysts to discuss CI's second-quarter earnings. "We are upgrading and integrating in New York. We’re doing the same thing in Boston and Chicago, in addition to Miami."
"That will drag on as we’re in the process of the build-outs now and in the repositioning," MacAlpine added. "That will take a couple to a few quarters to call it a fully steady state."
CI is a relative newcomer to the U.S. wealth management and RIA market, first entering the U.S. RIA industry in 2020. Ever since, it’s been on an acquisition binge that has startled some RIA veterans.
And the company has been experiencing some changes. When CI Financial announced the sale of a 20% private ownership stake in CI Private Wealth in May, it also said its plans for an initial public offering of that business, now Corient, were still in the works but had been postponed.
Meanwhile, the company reported that business unit, the U.S. wealth segment, posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, of $9.3 million, and adjusted EBITDA of $70 million, an increase of 48% in the quarter when compared to the same time last year.
CI Financial also disclosed two acquisitions that it's made since the end of June: Coriel Capital Inc., a women-owned ultra-high-net-worth wealth manager based in Montreal with $967 million in assets, and Intercontinental Wealth Advisors, a San Antonio, Texas-based RIA serving high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients with $1.7 billion of client assets.
CEO Dave Welling tells IN that the $72 billion mega-RIA has 'become the catalyst for employee ownership through M&A partnership.'
Financial advisor Stephen Davis shares the lessons he learned after leaving a national broker/dealer to set up his own shop in the first of a new InvestmentNews series in advance of Independence Day.
The "strategic divestiture" comes after years of legal challenges and speculation swirling around the analytics and data aggregation platform.
The $15.96 billion RIA is extending its footprint with a dentist-oriented Midwest practice and another Pacific Northwest team with an aerospace industry focus.
The firm expands its Tri-State presence with a veteran advisor group from New York, while LPL and Osaic also report smaller additions in Texas and the Hudson Valley.
Orion's Tom Wilson on delivering coordinated, high-touch service in a world where returns alone no longer set you apart.
Barely a decade old, registered index-linked annuities have quickly surged in popularity, thanks to their unique blend of protection and growth potential—an appealing option for investors looking to chart a steadier course through today's choppy market waters, says Myles Lambert, Brighthouse Financial.
