Canada Life Assurance Co. is acquiring Investment Planning Counsel Inc., a wealth management firm, from its sister company IGM Financial Inc.

It gives Canada Life, a subsidiary of Great-West Lifeco (GWL), a bigger presence in the wealth management business in Canada, something it has been keen to do for some time.

The purchase price of $575 million will be funded from available cash on hand. The IPC business is profitable today and the transaction is expected to be modestly accretive after two years. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year.

IPC, based out Mississauga, Ont., has about 650 advisers with about $31 billion of assets under administration (AUM).

In an interview with the Free Press, GWL CEO Paul Mahon said, “This is on strategy for Great-West Lifeco. We have actually been increasingly focusing on building leadership wealth management positions across our portfolio.”

A few years ago, it acquired Personal Capital, a wealth management firm in the U.S., and has done a number of smaller acquisitions of wealth management firms in Ireland where GWL has a sizable presence.

“IPC fits into that same strategy for Canada,” he said “We have had a keen interest in IPC for well over a year. In Canada we looked at the range of different opportunities. We have always viewed IPC as the prime target. It was not available when we first looked. But circumstances changed.”

Simultaneous to its sale of IPC, IGM Financial announced that it is acquiring a 20.5 per cent equity interest in Rockefeller Capital Management, a leading U.S. independent financial services advisory firm, for US$622 million.

IGM’s strategy is to expand its presence in the high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth client segments and this deal gives it a foothold into that business in the U.S.

Originally founded in 1882 as the family office of John D. Rockefeller, Rockefeller Capital Management was established in 2018 as an independent financial advisory services firm offering strategic advice to ultra- and high-net-worth individuals and families, institutions.

It has 44 offices across the U.S. and an office in London. It has more than US$100 billion in assets under administration.

The acquisition of IPC adds to Canada Life’s existing wealth management business. Adding IPC — which will continue operating independently for the medium term — will give Canada Life about $85 billion in assets under management, making the company one of the largest non-bank wealth providers in Canada.

In comparison, Winnipeg-based Wellington-Altus has about $20 billion in AUM and Richardson-family owned Richardson Wealth has about $35 billion. IGM Financial is the second largest in the country with $111 billion in AUM.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

Martin Cash
Reporter

Martin Cash has been writing a column and business news at the Free Press since 1989. Over those years he’s written through a number of business cycles and the rise and fall (and rise) in fortunes of many local businesses.

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