CI Financial Acquires $5.2B Silicon Valley RIA Portola Partners

Toronto-based CI Financial Corp. continues its buying spree in the U.S. with the acquisition of Portola Partners Group LLC, a $5.2 billion Silicon Valley wealth manager specializing in serving ultra-wealthy families, the company announced today in a press release.

This transaction, which is expected to close later this month subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions, will increase the Canadian global asset and wealth management company’s total U.S. assets to $82 billion. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The press release said that Portola Partners has developed substantial expertise regarding investments, as well as in tax, wealth transfer, estate and charitable planning. It noted that many of the firm’s clients include Bay Area residents such as technology company founders, executives and venture capitalists.

“Portola has developed wide-ranging capabilities to address the multifaceted needs of ultra-high-net-worth families, from intellectually rigorous, endowment-style investment management to complex tax planning to a wide range of family office services,” CI Financial CEO Kurt MacAlpine said in a statement. “The Portola team and model will be valuable in fostering the development of our ultra-high-net-worth offering across CI Private Wealth.”

Steve Rehmus, Portola co-managing partner, said CI Private Wealth’s professional services partnership model provides an unusually attractive, long-term growth opportunity for his firm's future generations of advisors and leaders. “We have been very impressed with the quality of our new colleagues at CI and at the other well-managed, healthily growing CI Private Wealth firms," he said in a prepared statement. 

CI Financial entered the U.S. registered investment advisor market in January 2020 and has since become one of the country's fastest-growing RIA platforms through a series of acquisitions. This latest transaction is its 17th. The company managed and advised on about $320.4 billion in Canadian client assets (U.S. $253.9 billion) as of August 31.