Portland financial advisor HM Payson set to be acquired by Florida firm
Photo / Renee Cordes
H.M. Payson, a wealth advisory firm with $7.9 billion in assets under management, is headquartered at One Portland Square in Maine's largest city.
Corient Private Wealth LLC, a Canadian-owned wealth management firm headquartered in Miami, is set to gain a foothold in Maine via an agreement to acquire Portland-based HM Payson & Co.
The deal, whose terms were not disclosed, will pair a four-year-old buyer with a long-established Maine financial firm founded in 1854.
HM Payson, led by President and Managing Director Daniel Lay since January 2024, has $7.9 billion in assets under management and around 60 employees. Corient, with around 1,200 employees, manages around $184 billion for high- and ultra-high-net-worth clients nationwide. As a Maine chartered trust company, HM Payson also manages around $1.2 billion in trust assets.
A spokesperson for Corient told Mainebiz that all current HM Payson employees have been offered opportunities at Corient, including members of the Portland firm's leadership team. The companies started talks over a possible combination this summer.
The acquirer, which entered the registered investment advisor market in 2020 as CI Private Wealth and rebranded as Corient in 2023, is a subsidiary of Toronto-based CI Financial Corp. (TSX: CIX). CI Financial is a global asset and wealth management company with around $377.3 billion in assets as of Oct. 31, 2024.
“By joining Corient, we can immediately offer more to our clients while staying true to the principles that have guided us for generations,” HM Payson’s Lay said. “We are aligned on culture and values, which emphasize earning the trust of clients through an in-depth, integrated approach tailored to each person’s individual needs.
“We were also impressed by Corient’s private partnership, which fosters collaboration and ensures that resources and expertise from across the firm will be available to serve our clients,” he added.
The acquisition will be Corient's sixth this year, according to a spokesperson who said the company's strategies to focus o high-performing registered investment advisors "who are entrepreneurial in spirit and interested in continuing to grow."
'Natural fit'
HM Payson's status as Maine’s largest registered investment advisor "and its legacy of exceptional service make it a natural fit for Corient,” said Corient CEO Kurt MacAlpine.
“Their team-based approach and deep commitment to client success align perfectly with our mission to put our clients at the center of everything we do,” he added. “We look forward to building on their impressive foundation to deliver even greater value to clients across Maine and the Northeast.”
Corient is a fee-only, fiduciary wealth management firm that CI Financial has been planning to spin off via an IP0. That exit plan is now on hold, however, as CI Financial prepares to go private via a $4.7 billion agreement announced last month with Mubadala Capital, the alternative asset management arm of Abu Dhabi sovereign investor Mubadala Investment Co.
"Given the recent CI Financial news with Mubadala, the Corient IPO is not a focus presently," a company spokesperson said via email.
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