Morgan Stanley is breaking up and selling off Eaton Vance WaterOak Advisors, the wealth management business that became part of the firm with its purchase of Eaton Vance in March 2021.
The unit managed approximately $14.4 billion as of Feb. 28.
Eaton Vance merged Eaton Vance Investment Counsel, its long-term wealth management unit, with WaterOak Advisors in November 2020, which it purchased in 2020. The unit was renamed Eaton Vance WaterOak Advisors.
CI Financial agreed to acquire the business of the former Eaton Vance Investment Counsel in a deal expected to close in the fourth quarter, said Trevor Davis, a spokesman for the firm, in an email Thursday.
Pathstone, a wealth manager, will acquire the WaterOak business, said a news release from the firm on Thursday.
Neither acquirer nor Morgan Stanley would provide financial terms of the transactions.
Eaton Vance Investment Counsel managed $11.4 billion for families, endowments, foundations and other entities as of Feb. 28.
The addition of Eaton Vance Investment Counsel's assets and other outstanding transactions will increase U.S. assets managed by Toronto-based CI Financial to $133 billion and its global assets to $311 billion, CI Financial said in news release Wednesday.
EVIC is CI Financial's 24th acquisition of a U.S. registered investment adviser over the past few years. The EVIC team will remain in Boston, CI's Mr. Davis said.
"With nearly a century of success, Eaton Vance Investment Counsel has earned its reputation as one of the country's leading registered investment advisers" said Kurt MacAlpine, CI's CEO, in the company's release.
He added that the acquisition of EVIC is one of CI's "largest U.S. acquisition by assets to date and aligns us with a growing firm."
WaterOak manages $3 billion, which will bring Pathstone's assets under advisement to $35 billion.
WaterOak employees will remain in their office in Winter Park, Fla., and will "significantly expand Pathstone's footprint in Florida," the firm's release said.
The Pathstone deal is expected to close May 2.
Pathstone is "very excited to welcome WaterOak to our family. They, like us, are driven by innovation and believe that unique technology will keep us a generation ahead of he industry," said Matthew Fleissig, partner and Pathstone's president, in the release.
