It has been a very trying period for all of us since the pandemic first started 18 months ago. Without
question, we have witnessed a bifurcated market with the service sector (restaurants, cinema, hotels,
cruise lines, airlines, etc.) taking a lashing—causing severe financial hardship, the effects of which will last
many years. Our hearts go out to those that have lost loved ones and suffered great financial setbacks.
As tends to be the case with crises, tragic setbacks are incurred by many. However, opportunities are
also created during these times and as such, other businesses may capitalize and do very well.
Given what has occurred, we thought you might like an update on what has been transpiring with our
parent company, CI Financial. We are in a sector that has prospered as has our clients, their families,
businesses and institutional accounts.
Our clients know firsthand that our collection of best-in-class Money Managers have
continued to excel in delivering excellent risk adjusted returns. Our mandate is to get our clients financial
wagons up the hill, knowing we will hit some bumps and potholes along the way. On our Investment
side, we believe in global diversification as Canada represents only a small fraction of Global GDP and
just 3% of the worlds Capital Markets (Source – RBC GAM). Thus, 97% of the opportunities are found outside of Canada.
We continue to strive to improve upon our offering to our clients. Our company has made significant
progress over the past year and a half in the never-ending pursuit of building a company that exceeds
expectations for their clients.
We aim for strong results in up markets and even more so we know it’s important to outperform in
down markets. Furthermore, our Wealth Planning team of tax accountants, tax and estate lawyers,
and insurance specialists are always available to review your circumstances for holistic wealth planning,
tax minimization, and assist in updating your Wills and Trusts, etc. We think it is important for you to
know that we have not been standing still “just treading water” but rather our organization has made
substantial strides in growing as a company to deliver an ever-improving product and service to our
clients. While securing safety of capital, increased wealth, as well as optimizing personal and family
affairs for the future, we get closer to achieving our end goal; delivering peace-of-mind to our clients.
As we announced earlier this year, Titus Ebenezer formerly a Vice President in our Wealth Planning
Group, has joined as a Partner on the Finegan team. Titus’ extensive accounting and tax/financial
planning background–a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) in both Canada & the US–has
substantially augmented various CI Private Wealth and CI Assante Private Client practices for over 10 years. Additionally, Titus holds the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® designation as well as the globally recognized Trust and EstatePractitioner (TEP) designation. Titus now devotes his time exclusively to our practice in assisting our
clients in holistic Wealth Planning.
To take a brief step back, we created Assante by acquiring 31 companies in the Financial Planning Sector
some 20 years ago. We took Assante public and shortly thereafter, CI Financial acquired our firm.
Assante had offices across Canada. Many of the original Assante Partners in Toronto, including myself,
branched off to create Stonegate Private Counsel within the Assante organization. Our clients on
average had more money and often had more complex Wealth Planning issues that we felt could be
more adequately dealt with by a more comprehensive, personalized approach and dual mandate of
Investment and Wealth Planning expertise. Thus, the Stonegate plan was to have fewer more affluent
clients/families with generally more complicated circumstances and deal with them on a more personal
basis. And, we were compensated on a fee basis and not a stock and bond trading commission basis.
Thus, our advice and recommendations were based on improving the returns and not on a commission.
This strategy has worked out exceptionally well. However we don’t stop there. We keep looking forward.
In order for us (the Advisory Team) to deliver an optimal experience to our clients, we need to have a
company with a strong foundation supporting us with size, scale and expertise.
Source: CI Financial
Kurt MacAlpine appointed Chief Executive Officer of CI Financial
The transformation of our parent company CI Financial really began with the selection of a new CEO
named Kurt MacAlpine. Mr. MacAlpine was formerly a Partner of McKinsey & Co where he led the
North American asset management business. Kurt is Canadian but has spent many years in New York.
Under Kurt’s leadership and vision there has been a number of initiatives based on his plan. Kurt’s three-
pronged business plan:
- Modernizing our Asset Management Business
- Expanding our Wealth Management Platform
- Globalizing our Company
Kurt’s belief was that the investment world was dividing into two main platforms, the first group being
the “do-it-yourself” type investor who prefer to participate in the market by buying ETFs and market
index(s). They themselves would select what index(s) would be bought and sold. This tends to be
investors who are more focused on short-term goals, but not necessarily market & investment oriented.
The second group prefer the expertise and guidance of professional advisors that provide a combination
of Investment Management (with a number of professional Money Managers) and Wealth Planning,
on a fee-only basis. That is what we do at CI Private Wealth, with the added element of requiring our
Managers to have a meaningful amount of their own money in their particular investment pool(s).
One of Kurt’s early initiatives was to rebrand the company’s different operating divisions to create
linkage. Thus, CI Private Wealth, CI Assante Wealth Management, CI Global Asset Management and
CI Financial now being connected. It turns out to be an excellent corporate initiative with unique
collaborative support.
Feel free to reach out with any questions and we’ll be happy to discuss any topic on mind further.
Sincerely,
The Finegan Ebenezer team