Kurt MacAlpine, CEO and director of CI Financial and founding partner and CEO of Corient, pictured in 2019.Tijana Martin/The Globe and Mail
Corient Private Wealth LLC is expanding into Canada, looking to fill a market gap for family office services to Canada’s wealthiest families by leveraging its recent international acquisitions.
“Our intention has always been to bring Corient to Canada, given the size and importance of this market and our deep heritage here,” says Murray Oxby, a spokesperson for Miami-based Corient, in a response sent by e-mail to questions from The Globe and Mail.
Corient plans to launch its Canadian ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) business in June by integrating Northwood Family Office, CI Coriel Capital Inc. and certain advisors from CI Private Wealth into Corient.
The Canadian properties, which are subsidiaries of Toronto-based CI Financial Corp., will be rebranded as Corient, Mr. Oxby says.
The business will launch with approximately $10-billion in assets. Nineteen people from the Canadian businesses are joining Corient as equity partners.
“The teams joining Corient in Canada have proven track records of successfully serving UHNW clients,” Mr. Oxby says. “We believe that integrating them into the global Corient partnership model will increase their ability to serve wealthy Canadian clients wherever they work and live.”
The reorganization of the Canadian businesses into Corient is pending regulatory approval from the Ontario Securities Commission and Quebec’s Autorité des marchés financiers, he says.
Corient was the U.S. wealth management arm of CI Financial until Jan. 1, when it was spun out in a corporate reorganization. Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Capital, which completed its acquisition of CI Financial in August, 2025, before taking it private, is the parent of both CI Financial Corp. and Corient, through CI Financial Holdings Ltd.
Mr. Oxby says Corient’s entry into Canada will have “zero impact” on CI Assante Wealth Management Ltd. and Aligned Capital Partners Inc., CI Financial’s Canadian wealth distribution arms, “because they serve fundamentally different client segments.”
The two firms “are excellent businesses providing financial planning and traditional investment management” to Canadian clients, he says.
CI Private Wealth also remains part of CI Financial.
Between 2020 and 2025, CI Financial built out a U.S. wealth business by acquiring almost 50 registered investment advisor businesses, which operate under a fiduciary standard. In 2023, the U.S. business was rebranded as Corient.
Last year, Corient said it was acquiring multi-family office firm Stonehage Fleming and wealth management and advisory firm Stanhope Capital Group, both based in the U.K. In April, it added Geneva-based wealth manager and multi-family office Bedrock Group to the list of acquisitions.
Once the global acquisitions are completed, Corient will manage and administer approximately $650-billion in client assets, Mr. Oxby says.
“The advantage of expanding globally first – by acquiring several leading wealth managers with experience and operations across the EMEA [Europe, the Middle East and Africa] – is that we are entering Canada with a truly integrated global offering designed to serve ultra-high-net-worth clients,” he says.
Mr. Oxby says Corient sees “a clear need” in the Canadian UHNW market for services that “extend beyond financial planning and traditional investment management.”
Corient will offer these clients family office services, wealth strategy, family governance and philanthropy, alternative investments, concierge services such as private aviation and art management, and cross-border advice, he says. The firm defines the UHNW market in Canada as those with more than $40-million in assets.
“[Corient’s] partnership structure was carefully designed to foster collaboration over competition, in order to bring the full strength of the firm’s expertise and capabilities to every client relationship with zero internal friction,” said Kurt MacAlpine, founding partner and chief executive officer of Corient, and CEO and director of CI Financial, in a release announcing the Canadian expansion.
Joe Millott, partner with investment banking advisory firm Fort Capital Partners in Toronto, says he expects Corient will leverage the capabilities it acquired through its recent global acquisitions, particularly the deal for Stonehage Fleming, to win business in the “very nascent” Canadian family office space.
Most existing multi-family offices in Canada started as investment management firms, Mr. Millott says. In contrast, Stonehage was first established in London in the 1970s as a trust and estate planning firm to help wealthy families from South Africa.
“It was not about investment management, and as such, [Stonehage Fleming] has built an exceptional group of services to ultra-high-net-worth families that is frankly unrivalled in Canada,” Mr. Millot says.
Although there may be only a limited number of UHNW clients in Canada, Mr. Millott says, “You don’t need lots of clients in a multi-family office business to be relevant and deeply ingrained. You actually need a few very valuable, very wealthy clients.”