Canada's CI Financial Buys Another US Wealth Manager

Tom Burroughes

4 November 2020

Canada’s has bought a majority stake in Stavis & Cohen Financial, a Texan firm with about $750 million in assets under management, according to Barron’s.

As the report noted, CI Financial has now agreed to acquire 10 RIAs - seven of them directly, and another three through affiliates - less than a year after it started its cross-border foray.

The report said that the Stavis & Cohen transaction will boost CI’s US assets to about $13 billion and total North American wealth assets to about $59 billion.

The purchase is an example of how non-US firms have pushed into the US market. As recently as this Monday, Azimut Group, the European asset management house, made a “significant” investment in US-based Sanctuary Wealth. The Sanctuary Wealth group, established less than three years ago, includes 41 partner firms and contains more than 100 advisors with total assets under management of $12 billion. Regular Family Wealth Report writer Charles Paikert earlier this year noted a run of foreign firms’ buying habits into the domestic US market.

Stavis & Cohen was founded in 2009 by chief executive Deborah Stavis and chief investment officer Eddie Cohen, who together have more than 75 years of industry experience.