CI Private Wealth rebrands to play up bespoke client offerings

One of the industry's most aggressive buyers in the M&A market has rebranded its U.S. wealth business to reflect the name of a registered investment advisor it bought last year. 

CI Private Wealth, the Miami-based division of Canadian wealth and asset management firm CI Financial, announced Tuesday that it was rebranding to Corient as part of a larger push to appeal to wealthy clients and rally the many firms that it has acquired in a few short years under a unified platform. The change comes as several firms in recent months have also rebranded, including Advisor Group becoming Osaic and Riskalyze becoming Nitrogen. 

Read more: Advisor Group rebranding to Osaic

The new name is supposed to evoke "client oriented" and "expresses the firm's commitment to providing its clients with an unparalleled wealth management experience," Corient said in a press release Tuesday. It also comes from Corient Capital Partners, an RIA based in Newport Beach, California that serves ultrahigh net worth clients and was purchased by CI last year. That firm's old name was added to a list of names being considered for a rebrand and ultimately won out, Kurt MacAlpine, CEO of Corient and CI Financial, said in an email. 

The new Corient website states that it primarily works with wealthy multigenerational families, entrepreneurs and business owners, entertainers and athletes, and corporate executives. In keeping with that, the buzzy, vaguely futuristic sound of the name "Corient" could also telegraph its familiarity with the U.S. tech industry's culture of innovation. 

"The adoption of a unified brand reflects the significant progress we have made in developing a leading national integrated wealth management business and in expanding the services we offer our clients across the U.S.," MacAlpine said, adding that the firm had added an in-house trust company and a tax practice and bolstered its alternative investments platform, among other offerings. 

"The new brand clarifies for clients and potential clients that they benefit from the expertise and capabilities of the entire firm." 

In the press release, MacAlpine added that Corient had ambitions to "become the country's preeminent private wealth firm." Currently, it has $147 billion in assets under management, according to the release. 

Read more: Riskalyze rebrands to Nitrogen as firm focuses on the growth of advisory firms

The Toronto-based parent company started out in 1965 as Universal Savings but rebranded in 1993 as Canadian International, according to its website, which said the firm's name was shortened officially to CI Financial in 2005. In just a few years after its arrival in the U.S. RIA market, it became a top acquirer of RIA practices. The buying spree has been costly though, as CI Financial saw its debt rating cut to junk in May by one rating agency after it took on heavy debt. The firm had to shelve IPO plans for its U.S. wealth business earlier this year and instead ended up selling a 20% stake of what is now Corient to a group of investors.

"There is a lot of aggregation happening in our industry, and acquisitions. Sometimes, those drive rebranding," Robert Sofia, the CEO and co-founder of wealthtech marketing firm Snappy Kraken, said in an interview.

Sofia said rebranding often happens if a firm plans to push its growth in a significantly new direction or into new markets, but can also occur when the firm has been frequently buying up companies and attempting to integrate them. 

"Sometimes it's a play to help unify the company," he said. 

In the case of Corient, the company enlisted a third-party branding agency to help create a list of name choices and had over 70 firm partners who worked in "focus groups, narrowing the initial list to two finalists," the release said. "The ultimate selection was determined by a vote of all partners, who favored Corient by a wide margin."