CI Financial acquires Northwood Family Office

CI Financial Corp. has acquired Toronto-based Northwood Family Office, a multi-family office firm with $2.2 billion in assets under management, CI announced Tuesday.

The acquisition is expected to increase CI’s Canadian wealth management assets to approximately $81 billion. CI reported preliminary Canadian wealth management assets of $78.6 billion as of Nov. 30, 2021.

“Northwood is a great complement to our Canadian CI Private Wealth business and together they form a strong foundation for building the country’s leading high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth platform,” said Kurt MacAlpine, CEO of CI, in a release announcing the deal.

Founded in 2003 by chairman and CEO Tom McCullough and president Scott Hayman, Northwood provides investment management and family office services to wealthy Canadian and global families with a combined $9 billion of family net worth. Clients include entrepreneurs, senior corporate executives, charitable and family foundations, and other ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families with at least $10 million in family net worth.

“CI is an exceptional strategic and cultural fit for our firm as we move to a new stage in Northwood’s growth and development,” said McCullough.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Northwood acquisition, which is expected to increase CI’s total assets globally to approximately $377 billion, represents CI’s first purchase of a Canadian wealth management firm since it took a majority stake in Aligned Capital Partners in August 2020.

CI spent the last year focused on U.S. acquisitions. In 2021, CI purchased 15 U.S. registered investment advisors (RIAs) and grew its U.S. assets to approximately US$115 billion from US$23 billion. CI’s U.S. wealth management business now represents the firm’s largest business line, exceeding core asset management and Canadian wealth management.

The firm’s most recent U.S. acquisition was Seattle-based Columbia Pacific Wealth Management, an RIA with US$6.4 billion in assets.

Rudy Mezzetta

Rudy is a senior reporter for Advisor.ca and its sister publication, Investment Executive. He has been reporting on tax, estate planning, industry news and more since 2005. Reach him at rudy@newcom.ca.