CI Financial and d1g1t Inc. Expand Strategic Alliance To Drive Accelerated Growth Across North America and Globally

CI Financial Corp. (“CI”) (TSX: CIX), and d1g1t Inc., the first provider of an enterprise wealth management platform powered by institutional-grade analytics and risk management tools, today announced the significant expansion of the strategic alliance between the two firms.

Under the terms of the expanded strategic partnership, d1g1t Inc.’s enterprise wealth management platform will be used to help CI Financial, a global asset and wealth management firm, to modernize its technology platforms and further develop advanced discretionary capabilities within its Assante Wealth Management business and correspondent network services.

The expanded partnership is also expected to allow CI Financial to more easily integrate its acquired U.S.-based registered investment adviser (RIA) firms, which will be able to seamlessly plug into d1g1t’s comprehensive technology platform. This year, CI has acquired RIA firms that manage US$11 billion in client assets (as of August 31, 2020), emerging as one of the top consolidators of independent wealth management businesses in the U.S. market.

“The quality of d1g1t’s leadership team, the strength of its offerings and the singularity of its approach is a combination that none of its competitors within the industry can meet, so expanding our relationship with them was an easy decision,” said Darie Urbanky, President and Chief Operating Officer of CI. “Having the proper technology framework in place is crucial not only to serving our existing businesses but also to expanding our presence internationally, especially in the U.S. wealth management space.”

Mr. Urbanky continued, “In today’s competitive landscape, it isn’t enough to bring financial capital to the table when making acquisitions. It’s also imperative to have technology that not only streamlines the implementation process but elevates the experience for advisors and their clients. The expansion of our strategic partnership with d1g1t augments our capabilities to do all those things for the firms we acquire.”

The expansion of the strategic relationship between CI Financial and d1g1t, Inc. encompasses the following:

• Assante Wealth Management, one of Canada’s largest providers of wealth management solutions to individuals, families and business owners with approximately $46 billion in assets (as at August 31, 2020), will deliver access to a proprietary d1g1t trading module that provides enhanced discretionary capabilities within separately managed accounts (SMAs) and unified managed accounts (UMAs) for the firm’s 900 financial advisors.
• CI Investment Services*, a broker-dealer that provides a wide range of innovative brokerage and trading solutions to diverse clients that include portfolio managers, introducing brokers and institutional investors, will offer access for its clients to the full spectrum of the d1g1t technology platform.

“Industry-leading technology is a critical business requirement and essential to both the client and advisor experience,” said Sean Etherington, Assante President. “The capabilities of the d1g1t platform will elevate our discretionary platform, broaden our recruiting capability, support continued growth in the high-net-worth segment and help fulfill our objective of being the leading wealth manager in every market segment in which we compete.”

Dr. Dan Rosen, co-founder and CEO of d1g1t, Inc., said, “We are excited to build on our strategic relationship with CI to deliver best-in-class technology tools and financial engineering expertise. We look forward to both supporting the robust global expansion plans of CI Financial, while elevating the service experience for the company’s affiliated professionals and their clients. The expansion of our partnership with CI not only validates the unique solutions we provide, but underscores our ability to serve large, diversified financial businesses with ambitious growth plans, across North America, and globally.”

The announcement substantially builds out on the strategic partnership created last year, when CI Financial agreed to deploy the d1g1t’s technology platform across the firm’s advisory businesses and acquired a minority equity stake in d1g1t, Inc.

*CI Investment Services is a registered business name of BBS Securities Inc.

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