Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. CF-T has lured a team of advisers with $1-billion of client assets from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce CM-T, the investment dealer’s second major raid on its banking rival in the past two months.
Canaccord has hired the Ottawa-based Sutherland Investment Group, which is led by former CIBC portfolio manager Fraser Sutherland. The move gives Canaccord its first office in the country’s capital. Matt Cicci, head of its private client group, said in a news release Thursday: “Expanding into Ottawa marks a significant milestone that allows us to enhance our service to clients in the capital region.”
The Sutherland team, all former CIBC employees, will now need to convince their clients to move their accounts over to Canaccord.
In September, Canaccord welcomed a Vancouver-based adviser team, BPS Wealth Management, with $1.4-billion of assets from CIBC.
“The recent addition of multiple leading advisory teams demonstrates our platform’s appeal to elite advisers,” said Stuart Raftus, the chief executive officer of Canaccord Genuity Corp., the investment bank’s Canadian business. Prior to joining Canaccord in 2014, Mr. Raftus ran CIBC’s U.S. wealth-management business.
Opening an office anchored by Mr. Sutherland’s group is the latest in a string of acquisitions that have boosted the assets in Canaccord’s domestic wealth-management business by a factor of four, to $40-billion, over the past decade. Toronto-based Canaccord has emphasized recruiting advisers in part to balance out the cyclical revenues and profits in the dealer’s capital markets division.
In the past, experienced financial advisers have left banks for independent dealers such as Canaccord in search of greater independence and higher compensation. Bank-owned wealth managers tend to dictate what securities advisers should buy for their clients. The banks have also decreased what they pay advisers with smaller portfolios of client assets, a trend known in the business as lowering the commission grid.
Mr. Sutherland spent 21 years at CIBC. In a news release, he said he decided to move to Canaccord because “we found an entrepreneurial culture and a tech-forward platform that enables us to elevate our client offering.”
CIBC’s Wood Gundy wealth-management business has more than 800 financial advisers at 100 offices across the country. Canaccord is a smaller platform, with 143 adviser teams in 10 domestic offices.
Last year, Canaccord added $1.5-billion in client assets to its Canadian division by snapping up Mercer Global Investments Canada Ltd.’s private wealth business.
Globally, Canaccord oversees $108-billion of client assets. The investment dealer’s largest wealth-management platform is in Britain, with $61-billion under management. It also manages $7-billion for clients in Australia.