Last updated on January 20, 2025

ABOUT THIS DISCLOSURE

We believe that successful long-term relationships are built on a foundation of trust and transparency, where both parties clearly understand their roles, obligations, and expectations. In that spirit, and to meet the requirements of securities legislation to make certain disclosures to you, we provide this relationship disclosure information. Not all information may apply to your personal circumstances or your relationship with CI Investment Services Inc., doing business as CI Digital Wealth. In this disclosure, we refer to CI Digital  Wealth, as “we”, “us”, “our”, or “CI Digital  Wealth”.

Along with the Managed Account Agreement (“Managed Account Agreement” or “Agreement”) you enter into with us when you open an account, this disclosure describes your relationship with us. By accepting the Agreement and maintaining an account with us, you confirm that you have received this disclosure, understood its contents, and acknowledged your consent to both the Agreement and the matters outlined in this disclosure.

This document will be provided to you at account opening and is always available through the Platform (as defined below). If there is a significant change to the information contained in this document, we will update the information in a timely manner and tell you about the changes. 

If you have any questions relatedto the contents of this document, pleasecontact us at 416-235-0200 or info@cidigitalwealth.com.

WELCOME TO CI DIGITAL WEALTH

We welcome you to CI Digital Wealth. We say with confidence that today is the beginning of what will be a long and rewarding relationship. CI Digital Wealth provides diversified professionally managed investment services. CI Digital Wealth takes a unique approach to wealth management through our convenient online platform (the “Platform”) and high standard of client care.

CI Digital Wealth is a division of CI Investment Services Inc. (“CIIS”), a firm registered as an investment dealer under provincial securities regulation and a member of the self-regulatory organization the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (“CIRO”). CIIS is a subsidiary of CI Financial Corp (“CIX”), and an affiliate of CI Investments Inc., which is one of Canada’s largest investment management companies. CI Global Asset Management (“CI GAM”) is a registered business name of CI Investments Inc. CIX is a publicly traded corporation whose shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: CIX). 

Our head office is located at 15 York Street, 2ndFloor, Toronto, Ontario,M5J 0A3. You can reach us also by telephone: 416-235-0200; by fax 416-288-8611 or by email info@cidigitalwealth.com.

We hope you take the time to read the balance of this relationship disclosure information document, which also describes material conflicts of interest that face us in providing services to you and how we address those conflicts of interest in your best interest.

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

CI Digital Wealth provides discretionary investment management services. This means that CI Digital Wealth will manage your account for you and make investment decisions on your behalf through the Platform. 

We use a team approach to provide you with advice and service. When you need to contact us, you can use an online messaging service through the Platform or email info@cidigitalwealth.com. You can book a call with members of our portfolio management, or customer service teams.

Members of our teams may contact you to assist with requests like account opening, transfers, and other account maintenance. This ensures you get the timeliest service possible.

Account Opening Documents

We have provided you with this relationship disclosure information and during the account opening process you will also receive:

•     Your Managed Account Agreement, including the CI Digital Wealth Fee Schedule, 
•     Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF) brochure describing the coverage of your account, 
•     CIRO brochures including How CIRO Protects Investors, and How to Make A Complaint.

Your account Application Snapshot, which contains the information about your account, is provided to you once your Application is complete.  When you complete a Client Checkup the information you provide will be documented in the form of a Checkup Snapshot. Both documents can be found in the Documents section of the Platform.

Investment Advice

CI Digital Wealth manages your account(s), which means we make investment decisions for you based on your investment preferences and objectives and the information about your personal and financial circumstances you provide us as part of our collection of Know Your Client (“KYC”) information. We describe the importance of KYC information below, along with what information we collect and how we use this information. Discretionary investment authority for the assets under our management is governed by your Agreement with us.

Our investment strategy is based on the view that your asset mix primarily determines portfolio performance and includes diversified asset classes in portfolios to maximize returns at different levels of risk. Our portfolios primarily contain Exchange Traded Funds (“ETFs”) and commission-free mutual funds. We use passive index funds along with selected actively managed investment funds. We may also invest your money in cash equivalents or other securities that we deem appropriate.

We offer a variety of portfolios tailored to your needs and preferences, including low-cost portfolios of ETFs, portfolios with access to private investments, and socially responsible investing portfolios. The investment decision for the appropriate portfolio for your account is based on the KYC details you provide us. We make portfolio recommendations based on the KYC information you provide during the online account opening process (the “Application”) and/or subsequent KYC information updates. CI Digital Wealth may contact you for additional information, and you can always speak to one of our wealth advisors about your investments.

Generally, if you are investing or hold less than $50,000 in your account with CI Digital Wealth, we will recommend a portfolio that we consider suitable for you based on your KYC information and that consists of a single diversified ETF. If you are investing or hold more than $50,000 in your account with CI Digital Wealth, we will recommend a portfolio that we consider suitable for you based on your KYC information that may consist of two or more ETFs or other investment funds.

If we recommend that you invest in our Private Portfolios based on the KYC information you provide, we must contact you (by email or telephone) before the recommendation is approved to discuss whether these portfolios are suitable for you, given they hold securities that are generally not available to the public and are exempt from the prospectus requirement. You will not be able to have your deposits invested in these portfolios until we have this additional communication with you, and you provide us with additional KYC information as we consider necessary. We will only continue with your investment in these portfolios if we confirm that they are suitable for you.

The liquidity of our portfolios is generally not restricted. You will be informed of any securities held in your portfolio with limited liquidity.

We offer portfolios managed directly by CI Digital Wealth and our affiliate sub advisor, CI GAM. With the exception of our Private Portfolios, CI GAM is the sub advisor for our portfolios. Unless otherwise presented to you during account opening, the construction of the portfolios directly managed by CI Digital Wealth considers all available securities (i.e. non-CI GAM funds, as well as CI GAM funds). Investment funds managed by CI GAM may be used in our Private Portfolios where we consider it to be in the best interests of our clients.

The CI Digital Wealth account opening process will indicate which portfolios are managed by CI Digital Wealth and which are managed by CI GAM or another sub adviser. 

In portfolios managed by CI GAM, CI GAM will consider the various investment funds managed by CI GAM and will generally only include investment funds not managed by CI GAM where it considers that CI GAM does not have a suitable investment fund for that portfolio. Generally, CI GAM will not consider other investment funds that may have characteristics, such as cost structure, or past performance, similar or superior to the securities managed by CI GAM. More information on how we address the conflicts of interest inherent in offering CI GAM portfolios and CI GAM investment funds can be found in the Conflict of Interest section of this document.

Opening an Account with CI Digital Wealth through Referral Partners

From time to time, we enter into referral partnerships with other firms, including affiliates, where clients may be referred to CI Digital Wealth for our portfolio management expertise by one of their other service providers. Once opened, your investment account will be an account with CI Digital Wealth. 

Our referral partner relationships are considered to be “referral arrangements” under applicable securities laws that apply to us, even though we do not generally pay our partners or their representatives any fees or incentives for these referrals. Nonetheless, they are referral arrangements, since our referral partners are incented to refer clients to us for their portfolio management needs and we are incented to accept those clients because of the additional management fees we will generate from those clients. In other words, these relationships are of mutual benefit to both of us. It is important to know that we do not pay any referral fees to any representative of any of our referral partners. If you are a client of one of our referral partners, you will receive an explanation of our specific referral arrangement and will be asked to acknowledge you have read this explanation before you open an account with us.

For some of our referral partner relationships, we may facilitate the collection and remittance of a services fee you may agree to pay your representative in respect of their financial planning and other on-going support services they provide to you. You will receive information about this service fee and how we facilitate its collection and remittance to your representative before you open an account with us. You will be required to confirm annually that you are receiving services from your representative, if we are collecting service fees on behalf of your representative for remittance to your representative.

Hold on Deposits

Deposits to your CI Digital Wealth account may be held for up to 30 days before they can be withdrawn in order to deter and prevent identity theft and fraud. Since we are an investment management firm not meant for short term trading, our clients do not typically withdraw funds within this window.

Trading Frequency

Cash from new deposits, transfers in, and investment income is usually invested within one week. If you have a portfolio composed of ETFs, cash will typically be invested within a few days. If you have a portfolio composed of mutual funds of private investments, cash will typically be invested once weekly, on Fridays. In some cases, it can take up to one month for cash in your account to be invested.

However, there may be a few reasons why your cash isn’t invested:

• Accounts must have a minimum balance to be invested.
• Accounts will not be traded until a wealth advisor has assessed the suitability and approved your account. 
• Small cash balances of less than $100 or less than 0.5% of the account value may not be invested.

If your cash isn’t invested and you don’t know why, please contact us.

CI DIGITAL WEALTH ACCOUNT APPLICATION — WHY KNOW-YOUR-CLIENT INFORMATION IS REQUIRED

In choosing CI Digital Wealth as your financial partner, you have already taken the all-important first step. In the online account opening process, we ask that you answer a series of questions that will help us understand who you are, where you are now and where you want to go. It is important that you answer each question as completely and accurately as possible. The information gathered will allow us to invest you in a portfolio designed to move you steadily toward your goals while meeting your individual needs and preferences.

Why So Many Questions?

As a registrant with the securities regulators in Canada and a member of CIRO, we are required to ask KYC questions to learn the essential facts about each of our clients in order to make suitable investment recommendations, as well as establish the identity of each of our clients. Through the online KYC questions, we are able to understand your current financial and personal status and intentions for your account with us. This allows our platform to make recommendations that are suitable for your financial and personal situation and your financial objectives. You can find the definitions of the KYC terms during the onboarding process and as part of our HelpCentre.

Rest assured we are committed to and bound by our comprehensive Privacy Policy and applicable privacy legislation. All information you provide is held in complete confidence. The purpose of the KYC questions is to help us do the job you expect from us. You provide KYC information when you complete the online Application and maintain KYC information through the Platform. 

KYC and Suitability Process

We are required under applicable securities rules to ensure each recommendation that is made is suitable for your situation in relation to your investment objectives, risk profile and other personal and financial circumstances. We are required to put your interests first, ahead of our own interests and any other competing considerations, when making any recommendations or taking any investment action in your account. We must take reasonable steps to confirm that, before we make a recommendation to buy or sell a security for your managed account, it is suitable for you based on the KYC information you provided and puts your interests first. 

CI Digital Wealth will review the personal information you provide, including your investment objectives and risk profile, and use this information to make an assessment of suitability with respect to the portfolio recommendations for your account. This information is used:

• To establish your identity;
• To establish whether you are an insider of a reporting issuer;
• To understand your investment needs and objectives;
• To understand your personal circumstances;
• To establish your investment time horizon;
• To identify your investment knowledge;
• To assess your financial circumstances; and
• To determine your risk profile, which is made up of your willingness to take on risk (your risk tolerance) and our assessment of your financial ability to take on risk (your risk capacity).

We may consider additional information, where relevant to your particular circumstance.

You provide KYC information when you complete the online Application and can update your KYC information through the Platform. The KYC information that you have provided to us at the time of your account opening is captured on the Application Snapshot which is available in the Documents section of the CI Digital Wealth platform.

It is critical that you provide us with accurate KYC information at account opening and let us know about any changes to your KYC information. This includes letting us know if your circumstances change or if any of the information you previously provided needs to be updated. This could include, but is not limited to, changes to your address, marital status, employment, income, risk profile, investment time horizon, cashflow, attitude about risk, or investment assets or debt. If there are changes, we will review the new information, assess the investments and strategies of your account and, if necessary, make changes to your portfolio. We will connect with you on an annual basis to confirm whether there are any changes to your information or circumstances so that we can assess that your portfolio remains suitable for your needs and objectives. Be sure to ask questions of us and ensure that you stay informed by reviewing the reporting material we provide to you, detailed below, and enlist the help of other professionals like lawyers and tax advisors when you’re faced with challenging changes to your circumstances. 

Trusted Contact Person

We request that you provide us with the name and contact information of a trusted contact person, who should be an individual with whom you are comfortable allowing us to discuss your financial or personal circumstances, in specific circumstances. We may contact your trusted contact person and/or disclose information about you or your account to your trusted contact person:

1. if we are concerned that you are being exploited financially;
2. if we are concerned about your mental capacity as it relates to your ability to make decisions involving financial matters;
3. to obtain the name and contact information of your legal representative, if any; and
4. to obtain your contact information if we cannot get in touch with you.

When you provide us with a name of a trusted contact person, you confirm to us that you have the consent of that person to provide us with their name and contact information and that the person knows you are naming them as your trusted contact. As with your other account information, it is important to keep this information current. You will be prompted to name a trusted contact person during account opening.

Please note that a trusted contact person is not authorized to act on your account.

Temporary Holds

CI Digital Wealth may place a temporary hold on the purchase or sale of a security on your behalf or on the withdrawal or transfer of cash or securities from your account, where we reasonably believe that you might have an illness, impairment, disability or aging-process limitation that places you at risk of financial exploitation, and we believe that you are, or may be exploited financially, or if we believe you do not have the mental capacity to make decisions involving financial matters. If we place a temporary hold on your account in any of these situations, a notice of the temporary hold and the reasons for the temporary hold will be provided to you as soon as possible after placing the temporary hold. Unless the hold is revoked, a notice of the decision to continue the hold and the reasons for that decision will be provided to you within 30 days of placing the temporary hold, and within every subsequent 30-day period. We may also contact your trusted contact person, if designated, in these circumstances.

CLIENT REPORTING

CI Digital Wealth provides you with a summary of your account(s) in accordance with regulatory requirements, including a monthly statement with information about your investments including original cost, market value, performance, fees, and transactions. You will receive information about the management fees you pay us, and if applicable, the service fees we collect and remit to your representative.

You can access your account information, account statements, and tax documents at any time through the Platform. Account information available includes fees, current holdings, activities, and portfolio values as of the last date of valuation. Account statements are provided through the Platform monthly, and we will notify you when they are made available each month. Any tax documents related to your account(s) are provided through the Platform and we will notify you as each tax document is made available. If you wish to receive paper statements from the custodian via mail you can request that for a fee.

You should regularly review all account information, portfolio holdings, and performance. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns about your client reporting. Please review your statements and notify us of any discrepancies within45 days of its distribution.

FEES

Management Fee

We charge a management fee regardless of your account performance. Management fees are based on a blended annual rate, calculated daily, and deducted from your account each month in arrears. The management fee we charge reduces the return of your account over time. We determine your blended annual rate based on the value of all of your accounts according to the pricing tiers in our fee schedule (which will be set out in a schedule to your Agreement). We calculate your monthly management fee by applying the daily equivalent of your blended annual rate to your daily balances. Charging a monthly management fee based on account balances instead of other pricing structures, like earning commissions on investments, supports our commitment to providing you with objective advice.

Please refer to the Managed Account Agreement for the most recent management fee schedule.

Our management fee covers our investment advisory and as well as the following costs incurred by your account:

• custodial fees
• trading fees
• account administration fees
• registration fees (for TFSAs and RRSP, Spousal RRSP, LIRA, RIF and LIF plans subject to account minimums), and
• deregistration fees (for deregistration of registered plans such as TFSAs, RRSPs, etc.)

We will not introduce any new charges or fees unless we provide you with at least 60 days prior written notice. Any such changes may be further restricted under the Agreement, or by securities rules and regulations.

If you invest with CI Digital Wealth through one of our referral partnerships referred to above, you may pay a different management fee to us than if you invested directly through us. Our management fees are in addition to the service fee you agree to pay your representative. You agree to the management and service fees when you open an account with us through one of our referral partnership channels.

Costs of Holding Investment Funds - Understanding Management Expense Ratios (MER) and Trading Expense Ratios (TER)

You indirectly pay the fees and expenses charged to the ETFs and/or mutual funds held in your portfolio. These fees and expenses are described as the management expense ratio (MER) and the trading expense ratio (TER) and are the fees paid to the fund managers of the applicable funds and expenses associated with operating the funds held in your portfolio. The MER and TER are not fees and expenses deducted from your account and are instead reflected in the value of the investments in your portfolio. Both ratios are expressed as a percentage of fund assets and the fees and expenses are not billed to you directly. The MER and TER do affect you because the fees and expenses paid by a fund reduces the fund’s return and the overall performance of your account.

We calculate the aggregate MER of the investments in your portfolio using a weighted average of the MERs of the investments in your portfolio. This is shown on your dashboard of the Platform.

Foreign Exchange Fees

You may be charged up to a thirty-five (35) basis point (0.35%) foreign exchange fee by the custodian of your account on currency conversion if we need to buy or sell foreign currency to trade securities in your account. We primarily use Canadian denominated investments, reducing the likelihood of a foreign currency conversion in your account.

OPERATING CHARGES, TRANSACTION CHARGES AND COMPENSATION

Any operating charges, transaction charges or other compensation, and any other expenses you may be subject to, are set out in your Agreement.

CI Digital Wealth and its employees do not collect commissions from the investments held in your account. The only compensation we receive is the management fee you agree to pay us (see the Management Fee section above). We do not, for example, receive trailing commissions from the fund managers of the investment funds in which you invest.

If we receive any commissions as a result of investment products held in your name, they will be credited to your account on a pro-rata basis, based on the holdings in the account and the time the security was held during the billing period. This credit will be reflected on your statement.

IMPACT OF FEES, CHARGES AND OTHER EXPENSES ON YOUR RETURNS

The fees, charges and other expenses described above will affect the returns on the investments in your account(s) by reducing the returns in proportion to the fees, charges and expenses. Fees embedded within the ETFs or any other investment funds you hold reduce the market value of those securities held in your account(s). When considering the fees, charges and other expenses applicable to your account(s) and the investments you hold, you should understand that a fee, charge or other expense charged to your account(s) or the investments you hold will compound over time as a deduction to the overall value of your account(s) and/or the investments. Every dollar used to cover fees, charges and other expenses is one less dollar left to invest to compound and grow over time.

RISKS OF INVESTING

Any investing involves a certain degree of risk. Depending on the nature of your investment mandate, the types of investment risk will vary. As a CI Digital Wealth client, you benefit from the expertise of portfolio managers who are dedicated to selecting investments for your specific portfolio. Visit our HelpCentre for a summary of investment risks that may be associated with your portfolio.

LEVERAGE DISCLOSURE STATEMENT 

Using borrowed money to finance the purchase of securities involves greater risk than using cash resources only. If you borrow money to purchase securities, your responsibility to repay the loan and pay interest as required by its terms remains the same even if the value of the securities purchased declines.

We do not lend you nor help you borrow money for investing. We do not automatically adjust our recommendation if you are using borrowed funds to invest. If you wish to discuss this additional risk with us, please reach out to one of our wealth advisors.

CUSTODY AND WHERE YOUR ASSETS ARE HELD

CI Digital Wealth is a division of CI Investment Services (previously defined as “CIIS”), a registered investment dealer under the securities legislation in all provinces and territories in Canada, and member of CIRO, the national self-regulatory organization which oversees all investment dealers and trading activity.

All of your assets and accounts are held in your name at CIIS’ custodian division (the “custodian”), which is functionally independent from CI Digital Wealth. CI Digital Wealth advisors and sub advisors do not have access to your assets held by the custodian. This is the primary benefit of having a functionally independent custodian and minimizes the risk of loss. You have provided us with the authority to provide instructions to buy and sell securities in your account(s) and debit your account to pay us management fees and, as applicable, the service fees payable by you to your Representative. 

We believe the selection of large, financially sound, and regulated custodians substantially reduces the risk of loss or misappropriation of client assets and is in the best interest of our clients. As a CIRO registrant, CIIS, in its capacity as custodian, maintains a system of controls and supervision to manage these risks. 

CI Digital Wealth has a written agreement in place with CIIS which outlines the roles and obligations of CI Digital Wealth and the CIIS in the custodial relationship. In addition to holding your assets, CIIS is responsible for providing services including acting as a dealer to trade securities as directed by CI Digital Wealth, completing tax reporting, providing confirmations and statements, and deducting our management fee.

CIIS is a Canadian custodian under applicable securities laws and members of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (“CIPF”), which provides protection for your accounts in case of the custodian’s insolvency for up to $1 million per account type. When opening your account, you are provided with a CIFP brochure describing the coverage of your account. Visit CIPF to learn more.

We monitor our custodial arrangement and may make changes to or appoint additional custodians should we determine it is in the best interest of our clients.

BUSINESS CONTINUITY

CI Digital Wealth has a business continuity plan to help us to continue to serve you where there is a business interruption owing to an unforeseen event (e.g., power outage, earthquake, fire, flood, etc.). We test this plan at least annually.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Securities laws require that we take reasonable steps to identify and respond to material conflicts of interest and conflicts that are reasonably foreseeable, between CI Digital Wealth, individuals acting on our behalf, and our clients. We are required to inform you (by way of a current disclosure) of the nature and extent of a material conflict and how we address it, in a timely manner, at the time of account opening and in certain cases again prior to the activity being undertaken. If we cannot effectively address a material conflict in your best interest, or the conflict is otherwise prohibited by law, we avoid it.

A conflict of interest arises when the interests of different persons, particularly your interests and those of CI Digital Wealth or one of our employees, including for these purposes our directors, partners, and other employees, are incompatible or divergent. As a result, situations may arise that may influence, or be perceived to influence, CI Digital Wealth or one of our wealth advisors to act in their own interests or those of a related entity and not in our clients’ best interests.

Generally, a conflict of interest is material if the conflict may be reasonably expected to influence either your decisions as a client in the circumstances, and/or the recommendations or decisions of CI Digital Wealth or its employees in the circumstances.

Accordingly, conflicts of interest may occasionally arise between:

• you and CI Digital Wealth;
• you and others whom we represent; or
• CI Digital Wealth and our related and associated company and issuers.

We respond to conflicts of interest in a fair and transparent manner consistent with the best interests of our clients. We have implemented policies and procedures designed to assess, address, and manage those potential conflicts of interest using three basic mechanisms to do so, depending on the circumstances:

1. Avoiding Conflicts of Interest – We avoid conflicts which are prohibited by law, as well as material conflicts that we cannot effectively control in your best interest, or if they give rise to serious potential impact to CI Digital Wealth, its employees, or its clients. Some conflicts cannot be avoided, including those conflicts that are inherent in our relationship with CI Financial and with our affiliates arising out of our membership in the CI Financial organization. In situations that we do not or cannot avoid a conflict of interest, where our interests may compete with yours, we will always give your interests priority over ours.
2. Controlling Conflicts of Interest – We manage acceptable conflicts or those we cannot avoid through several means, depending on the conflict. We address the conflict to minimize its impact and risks to you and our other clients. Generally speaking, we manage conflicts by: (i) requiring our employees to comply with various policies and procedures, including the CI Digital Wealth’s Code of Conduct, which are designed to ensure our employees follow ethical and client-first business practices; (ii) physically separating different business functions and restricting the internal exchange of information; (iii) reducing the possibility of one part of our organization inappropriately influencing another; (iv) employing a compensation structure that does not incentivize our wealth advisors to favour one product over another that may be more suitable to the client; (v) internal audit processes to ensure clients are properly informed of potential conflicts of interest; and (vi) establish and use manual and electronic surveillance and supervision to monitor the application of conflict control measures.
3. Disclosing Conflicts of Interest – An important method of conflict management, but not the only method, is to provide you with information about material conflicts and how we address them in order for you to factor this information into your decision making.

CI Digital Wealth is committed to ensuring that the interests of our clients always have precedence. CI Digital Wealth seeks to ensure effective management of any situation that could give rise to a conflict of interest. In cases where a material conflict exists between CI Digital Wealth and our client(s), we will address the conflict in the best interest of our clients, and we will disclose these conflicts to our clients in a timely manner upon identification of the conflict.

Conflicts of Interest Disclosure

In this section we share with you:

1. The material conflicts of interest we have identified.
2. An explanation of risks to clients associated with each conflict.
3. How we have addressed the conflict in your best interest.

Conflicts of interest related to CI Digital Wealth being part of CI Financial Organization

CI Digital Wealth employees may be shareholders of CI Financial Corp.

CI Digital Wealth is a wholly owned subsidiary of CI Financial Corp. (previously defined as “CIX”), a public company whose shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. A principal business of CIX is the management, marketing, distribution and administration of mutual funds, segregated funds and other fee-earning investment products for Canadian investors through its wholly owned subsidiary, CI Investments Inc, also known as CI Global Asset Management (previously defined as “CI GAM”). Employees who work within CI Digital Wealth and the other members of the CIX organization may hold CIX shares.

In the course of providing services to you, we may from time to time advise you with respect to the purchase or sale of securities from or to, or issued by, persons or companies which are related or connected to us. We will carry out such services in the ordinary course of business in accordance with usual practices and procedures and with all applicable regulatory requirements. 

These transactions and arrangements may give rise to conflicts of interest; however, we have adopted policies and procedures to identify and respond to these conflicts. We will only enter into transactions or arrangements where they are permitted under securities laws, where they are consistent with your investment objectives, and where we consider they are in your best interest in the applicable circumstances.

If you invest in investment products managed or sponsored by CI GAM, CIX will, through its ownership of the CI affiliates, profit from ongoing asset management fees that are described in applicable Fund Facts and other offering documents. Accordingly, to the extent that a CI Digital Wealth employee owns securities of CIX, he or she will benefit from these fees, which contribute to the share price of CIX.

If this is the case, CI Digital Wealth and our employees must manage the conflict of interest in your best interest, which generally means, in this context, considering a reasonable range of investment options for you and your account within the parameters of the portfolio mandate. CI GAM will periodically review its products to ensure they maintain competitive in the market. A recommendation to invest in CI GAM investment products will only be made if we consider such investment is in your best interest and suitable for you having regard to your financial and personal circumstances.

CI Digital Wealth portfolios may containCI GAM investment products or be sub advised by CI GAM

Given our affiliation with CI GAM, including a CI GAM investment productin our portfolios, in which you may invest is a conflictof interest, and you may be concerned about whether our actionsin causing this to occur is in your best interests. To mitigate the associated conflicts of interest and address them in your best interests, CI Digital Wealth has adopted controls, including an evaluation and in-depth review process for all investment products that are approved for our investment portfolios.

With the exception of our Private Portfolios, we have engaged CI GAM as our sub-adviser to create investment portfolios for us. These portfolios may be created primarily using CI GAM investment funds and will generally only include investment funds managed by third parties where CI GAM considers there is not a suitable CI GAM fund to include in the portfolio. These portfolios will be disclosed to you at account opening as CI GAM portfolios and can be viewed on the Portfolio Disclosure page on the Platform. By favouring CI GAM funds for these portfolios, we have not considered other securities that may have characteristics, such as cost structure or past performance, similar or superior to the CI GAM investment funds. These securities are evaluated using the same process used to evaluate securities issued by a third party (i.e. non-CI GAM Funds).

CI Digital Wealth employees do not receive any incentives for recommending or selecting CI GAM investment products or CI GAM-advised portfolios.

You will know whether an investment product is a CI GAM investment product generally because it will contain the term “CI” as part of its name. We will tell you if you are invested in a CI GAM sub-advised portfolio.

You should note that CI GAM investment products are “connected issuers” and/or “related issuers” to CI Digital Wealth. In general terms, a “related” issuer means a person or company that influences, or is influenced by, another person or company. A “connected” issuer is a company that has business or other relationship with CI Digital Wealth that, in connection with a distribution of securities of the issuer, is material to a prospective purchaser of the securities. Please refer to the legal notice for a current list of related and connected issuers. Alternatively, you may contact us at 416-235-0200.

CI Digital Wealth is related to other subsidiaries of CIX

Securities legislation requires us to inform clients if we have any principal shareholders, officers, partners or directors who are also principal shareholders, officers, partners or directors of another securities registrant. As well, we must provide clients details of the policies and procedures adopted to minimize the potential for conflict of interest resulting from these relationships.

CIX is also a principal shareholder of the following Canadian securities registrants or service providers to securities registrants. Directors and officers of CI Digital Wealth may be directors or officers of one or more of these entities.

• Aligned Capital Partners Inc.
• Assante Capital Management Ltd.
• Assante Financial Management Ltd.
• Northwood Family Office Ltd.
• CI Investments Inc.
• CI Private Counsel LP
• CI Investment Services Inc.
• WealthBar Financial Services Inc.
• Marret Asset Management Inc.
• Coriel Capital Inc.

Each of CIX, CI Digital Wealth, and the related registrants is a separate legal entity which carries on its business independently. Conflicts of interest resulting from the above relationships are minimized in a number of ways.

CI Digital Wealth has conflict of interest policies and complies with all applicable regulatory restrictions in dealing with its affiliates. Compliance with CI Digital Wealth’s policies and procedures are monitored under the guidance of CI Digital Wealth’s compliance department.

CI Digital Wealth may retain related service providers

CI Digital Wealth may enter into arrangements with its affiliates respecting such matters as the provision of support, custodial, investment management services, distribution of products and services, and client referrals.

Due to the relationship between CI Digital Wealth and its affiliates, CI Digital Wealth may be incentivized to engage related service providers as opposed to third party service providers. All business conducted by CI DigitalWealth with affiliates is agreed to in writing.CI Digital Wealth conducts due diligence and ongoing monitoring of related service providers in the same way as it does unrelated service providers. Related service providers maintain systems of internal controls and supervision which are independent or functionally independent from the CI Digital Wealth, including separate management and personnel who perform the custodial and investment management functions.

CI Digital Wealth engages CI GAM as a sub-adviser on portfolios and uses CI Investment Services custodian division as a custodian for managed accounts. CI Digital Wealth also has a referral relationship with the Assante dealers listed above, which is intended to facilitate clients of the Assante dealers and their representatives to open accounts with CI Digital Wealth, where the Assante dealers and their representatives consider this to be appropriate for those clients. Those clients become clients of CI Digital Wealth through the usual portfolio recommendation process and before opening an account receive and acknowledge information about the relationship and the associated conflicts of interest in the managed account agreement.

Conflicts of interest related to CI Digital Wealth compensation

CI Digital Wealth receives compensation through the management fees charged to you for your account which are set out in your managed account agreement. CI Digital Wealth is a division of CI Investment Services, and other divisions of CI Investment Services may receive interest on cash balances that may be held in your account.

Depending on how you are introduced to CI Digital Wealth and the value of your assets invested, your management fee rate may differ than if you were to sign up directly from our website. Your fees are explained to you in the managed account agreement when you sign up. If you have an existing relationship with an introducing representative, you may agree to pay this introducing representative service fees, which we will collect from your account and remit to your representative. You do not need to pay service fees to your introducing representative if you want to open an account with us, but you will open your account through our regular account opening procedures.

Our management fee differentials are due to our relationships with our referral partners and their clients and the different costs we have in providing our services to our various groupings of clients.

Conflicts of interest related to compensation of CI Digital Wealth employees

CI Digital Wealth and its employees do not accept gifts, benefits, compensation, or consideration that creates, or might reasonably be expected to create, a material conflict of interest.

Conflicts of interest related to outside activities

Our directors, officers, and wealth advisors may engage in business activities that are outside CI Digital Wealth’s securities related business activities (“outside activity”) only if they have received prior approval from us to do so. You should be aware that our employees may provide other products and services that are outside of his/her affiliation with CI Digital Wealth. These are not considered securities-related and are the responsibility of the employee alone. They may also be employees, officers and/or directors of affiliates, or may also be officers or directors of public companies. 

We will, as best as possible, monitor all outside activity to ensure the activity doesn’t impair our ability to serve you and is consistent with our duty to deal fairly, honestly, and in good faith with you. 

We will investigate and follow up on written client complaints relating to an outside activity. CI Digital Wealth makes no representations or warranties and assumes no liability in connection with any outside activities of our directors, officers, and wealth advisors. 

If you have any questions, please contact CI Digital Wealth’s Chief Compliance Officer at 416-235-0220.

Conflicts of interest related to employee personal trading

CI Digital Wealth employees could put themselves in a situation of conflict of interest by carrying out transactions in their personal account using confidential information about CI Digital Wealth or its clients, acquired in the performance of their duties. CI Digital Wealth manages these potential conflicts by ensuring our employees act in accordance with our personal trading policy and applicable laws. 

Conflicts of interest related to referral arrangements

We may enter into referral arrangements with affiliated or non-affiliated registrants and non-registrants, some of which are related registrants to CI Digital Wealth, so that we may provide portfolio management services to referred clients. We may provide “referral fees” (as such term is defined in applicable securities laws) to the referrer. A referral fee is any benefit provided to the referrer for the referral. We may negotiate the referral fee with the referrer. You should know that referral fees or benefits provided to a referrer creates an incentive for those referrers to refer you to us and gives rise to conflicts of interest for those referrers that they must manage in your best interests. We will inform all referred clients about our referral arrangements, including the benefits we provide to the referrers. Since we receive management fees from clients referred to us, who we accept as our clients and who agree to our services, we are incented to enter into referral arrangements and also to accept referred clients as our clients. We manage our conflicts of interest in this regard, in the best interests of clients by following our same rigorous procedures in collecting financial and personal information about clients and ensuring that an account with us, and any chosen portfolio, is suitable for that client and puts that client’s interests first.

In some circumstances we may agree to develop an online platform for our referral partners to provide ease of access to the Platform for referred clients. We may receive a fee from our referral partners in respect of this service. This relationship also creates incentives for us to accept these clients, which we manage through the rigorous procedures described above.

CI Digital Wealth may also receive a referral fee for referring its clients to other service providers. The purpose of referrals is to introduce our clients or potential clients to qualified persons who are best suited to help them achieve their financial objectives.

If a referral arrangement is in place, we will provide you with a written disclosure at the time you commence to open an account with us with full particulars of the conflicts and how we manage them. We will provide you with the specific details of the arrangement, including:

• the name of our referral partner;
• the purpose and material terms of the referral arrangement, including the nature of the services to be provided by each party – generally our referral partners are not permitted to give you any advice about our services or our portfolios, including any curated portfolios we develop with the referral partner;
• any conflicts of interest resulting from the relationship between the parties to the referral arrangement and from any other element of the referral arrangement;
• the method of calculating the referral fee or benefits and, to the extent possible, the amount of the fee or benefits;
• the category of registration of each registrant that is a party to the agreement, with a description of the activities that the registrant is authorized to engage in under that category and, giving consideration to the nature of the referral, the activities that the registrant is not permitted to engage in under that category.

FAIR ALLOCATION TRADING POLICY

CI Digital Wealth has in place a fairness policy (the “Policy”), which establishes the procedures for the fair treatment of all clients of CI Digital Wealth, with respect to the allocation of investment opportunities. CI Digital Wealth manages client accounts in accordance with specified investment models.

CI Digital Wealth will allocate investment opportunities that are suitable for client accounts. In determining the suitability of each investment opportunity to a client account. When an investment opportunity is suitable for two or more client accounts, CI Digital Wealth will allocate such an investment opportunity on a pro rata basis. Each account involved will receive a percentage of the executed portion of the order based upon such account’s percentage participation in the entire order. This procedure applies to all accounts participating in the trade falling under the same trading deals. Calculating the average price of all executions taken, as well as the expenses incurred pursuant to the particular order, will determine the security selling or purchase price, and the transaction costs incurred upon the trade. There may be circumstances where the automatic pro rata apportionment will be inappropriate. Should such a circumstance arise, an allocation will be determined by CI Digital Wealth on a fair and reasonable basis.

Client accounts, which are managed in accordance with a model portfolio, will maintain the investment composition of the applicable model. CI Digital Wealth will group similar client accounts based on the client’s investment objectives, and strategies to be managed in line with similar models. CI Digital Wealth reviews and approves all allocations.

The Policy applies to all client accounts managed by CI Digital Wealth and is continuously monitored, reviewed, and updated on a periodic basis.

PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKS AND HOW TO USE THEM

We do not provide benchmark comparisons of the performance of your account. You should speak to us if you have any questions about the performance of your portfolio or which benchmark(s) might be appropriate for you to use to assess the performance of your account.

You may assess the performance of your investments by comparing them to an investment performance benchmark. Benchmarks show the performance over time of a select group of securities. There are many different benchmarks. When choosing a benchmark, you should pick one that reflects your investments. For example, the S&P/TSX Composite Index follows the share prices of the largest companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. This index would be a good benchmark for assessing performance of a Canadian equity fund that invests only in large Canadian companies. It would be a poor benchmark if investments are diversified in other products, sectors, or geographic areas.

PRIVACY POLICY AND USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION 

CI Digital Wealth is committed to respecting and protecting the privacy confidentiality of the information you have entrusted with us. Our Privacy Policy Notice outlines how we collect, use, disclose, store and safeguard your personal information.

What Information Do We Collect?

We collect information, including sensitive personal information, such as social insurance number, required to establish and service your accounts in compliance with federal and provincial laws, as well as our financial self-regulatory organization requirements. We maintain audio recordings of in-coming and out-going telephone calls. You may access our full Privacy Policy Notice online at www.cidigitalwealth.com. If you choose to interact with us online via the Platform or through e-mail, we will monitor and record your usage information (please see our Online and Mobile Privacy Policy at www.cidigitalwealth.com for additional details).

How Do We Collect Information

We collect information directly from you. Depending on how you choose to do business with us, this information may be collected on applications, forms, over the phone, in person, through the internet, through your mobile device or through other forms of communication. We also collect information about you indirectly where permitted by law. We limit the collection of information to what is necessary to fulfill the purpose for which the information is collected.

How Do We Use The Personal Information We Collect?

In addition to the purposes set out in our full Privacy Policy www.cidigitalwealth.com, we may use your information to

1. Provide and manage products and services you have requested, including to;

1. Open and operate your account,
2. Verify your identity,
3. Execute your transactions,
4. Record and report account status back to you,
5. Provide personalized service and support, and
6. Respond to any request or questions  you may have.
7. Understand our customers and  to develop and tailor our products and services by performing data analytics to:
8. Determine suitability of products and services for you,
9. Determine your eligibility for certain of our products and services, or products or services of others,

1. Communicate with you about products and services that may be of interest,
2. Provide you with quality individualized client service and support, and
3. Market and advertise to clients and prospective  clients.

3. Legal and Regulatory  Obligations

1. Provide all required tax reporting,

1. Comply with legal, regulatory, and contractual requirements, or as otherwise permitted by law,
2. Fulfill obligations under federal anti-money laundering and suppression of terrorism legislation,
3. Meet obligations as a member of various financial self-regulatory organizations,
4. Protect our interests, including recovering any debts you may owe us, and
5. Protect against fraud and other crime and to manage risk, including conducting investigations and proactive crime prevention measures.

We do not sell or rent client lists or personal information to third parties.

Disclosure of Your Personal Information

Employees or authorized representatives of CI Digital Wealth, who will be responsible for functions relevant to the purposes identified above, and other persons authorized by you or by law, will have access to the personal information contained in your file. We share your personal information with CI Financial company affiliates, such as CI Investments Inc. (operating as CI Global Asset Management), Assante Wealth Management (Canada) Ltd., and CI Investment Services Inc., and their subsidiaries where necessary to administer and service your account.

We provide your information to third parties, including:

• Third party service providers for the servicing purposes described above – We do not authorize our service providers to use or disclose the personal information for their own marketing or other purposes. We engage service providers pursuant to a written agreement which requires them to protect personal information with equivalent safeguards that we would use. Our service providers may be located in Canada or other jurisdictions or countries and may disclose information in response to valid demands or requests from governments, regulators, courts and law enforcement authorities in those jurisdictions or countries in accordance with the applicable law in that jurisdiction or country. For more information on our information sharing practices, please contact our Privacy Officer.
• To governments, government agencies, regulators, including self-regulatory authorities, when required or permitted to do so by law, including in response to a search warrant, court order, or other demand or inquiry which we believe to be valid.
• To your legal representatives and/or with other third parties at your direction for the purposes which you specify at the time of the direction.
• To financial institutions, securities dealers and mutual fund companies where necessary to administer and service your account.
• To protect our interests, we may disclose information to any person or organization, including an investigative body, in order to prevent, detect or suppress, financial abuse, fraud, criminal activity, protect our assets and interests, or manage or settle any actual or potential loss or in the case of a breach of agreement or contravention of law.
• We may also disclose information to help us collect a debt owed to us.
• In the event of a transfer of a business, we may buy or sell a business (or evaluate those transactions) which would result in certain personal information forming business assets that would be purchased or sold as part of a transfer.
• We may transfer personal information as part of a corporate reorganization or other change in corporate control.
• In other situations where we have your consent, for instance, sharing your information with a joint account holder.

Information collected will be communicated outside of Quebec, both within Canada and other jurisdictions or countries and we may disclose information in response to valid demands or requests from governments, regulators, courts and law enforcement authorities in those jurisdictions or countries in accordance with the applicable law in that jurisdiction or country.

Protecting Information

We maintain appropriate physical, electronic, technological, procedural, and organizational safeguards to protect against unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification, theft, misuse, or loss of your personal information in our custody or control. These safeguards are appropriate to the sensitivity of the information, the purposes for which it is used, the quantity and distribution of the personal information and the medium on which we (or our service providers) store it. We limit access to your personal information to the employees and agents who require it for the purposes of their role. Your personal information is only used for the purposes for which it was collected or where permitted by law. We store personal information for as long as is necessary to achieve the purposes for which it was collected or in accordance with applicable law.

Accessing or Correcting Information

We are committed to being transparent and providing you with choices about how your information is used. You may inform us of your preferences by registering to your CI Digital Wealth Online Account within the Platform and accessing the Privacy Preferences page. If you are unable to register online, you may also contact our client services via phone at 416-235-0200 or by e-mail to info@cidigitalwealth.com.

To correct or access your information, we encourage you to contact our Client Services department, access the Platform or consult your periodic statements. However, you do have the right to access and correct your personal information, or to find out to whom we have disclosed it. To make a formal request for access or correction, please send a written request addressed to the Privacy Officer, 15 York Street, 2nd Floor, Toronto, ON, M5J 0A3. Please include your full name, address, telephone number, and account number(s) on all correspondence to us and provide enough detail to allow us to identify the information you want to access or correct.

Revoking Consent

You may withdraw your consent for the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information at any time by forwarding a written request to the Privacy Officer. Please include your full name, address, telephone number and account number(s) on any correspondence to us. However, there are certain times when you may not withhold or revoke your consent including certain legal, regulatory, or contractual requirements. We must receive reasonable notice of your request in order to honour your consent withdrawal. Your decision to withhold or revoke your consent may limit the products and services that we may provide to you and may require you to close your accounts with us.

Our Privacy Office

If you have any questions or concerns about our privacy practices, the privacy of your personal information, or you want to change your privacy preferences, please contact our Privacy Officer. For changes to your privacy preferences please be reminded that you may update your selection by accessing the Privacy Preferences page on the Platform. We are committed to helping resolve your questions or concerns. CI Digital Wealth Privacy Officer, 15 York Street, 2nd Floor, Toronto, ON, M5J 0A3.

COMPLAINT HANDLING PROCESS

We are committed to providing you with a high level of service. Should you have a complaint related to your account, contact the Chief Compliance Officer, CI Digital Wealth by mail at 15 York Street, 2nd Floor, Toronto, Ontario, M5J 0A3; by telephone 416-235-0220; or by emailing info@cidigitalwealth.com. In filing a complaint, you should detail what went wrong, when it happened, and what your expectations are.

We will acknowledge receipt of a complaint formally within five business days of its receipt. As soon as practically possible, or within 90 days of receiving a complaint, we will provide a written assessment detailing the results of its investigation, how we have or propose to remedy the situation (or confirmation of no issue) and an explanation of our position and decision. We will endeavour to resolve the matter as quickly as possible and to your satisfaction. Recognizing that investors may not be satisfied with our response or remediation, independent dispute resolution services are available free of charge.

Complaint Outcome

In our substantive response letter, we will either offer to resolve your complaint or deny it. You may have to sign a release if we offer a financial settlement. You will be provided with information regarding alternative options if you are unsatisfied with our response.

Complaint handling information from CIRO

Clients of an investment dealer who are not satisfied with a financial product or service have a right to make a complaint and to seek resolution of the problem. CIRO Member dealers have a responsibility to their clients to ensure that all complaints are dealt with fairly and promptly. If you have a complaint, these are some of the steps you can take:

• Contact CI Digital Wealth. Member firms are responsible to you, the investor, for monitoring the actions of their representatives to ensure that they are in compliance with by-laws, rules and policies governing their activities. The firm will investigate any complaint that you initiate and respond back to you with the results of their investigation within the time period expected of a Member acting diligently in the circumstances, in most cases within three months of receipt of the complaint. It is helpful if your complaint is in writing.
• Contact CIRO which is the self-regulatory organization in Canada to which your investment dealer belongs. CIRO investigates complaints about investment dealers and their representatives, and takes enforcement action where appropriate. You may make a complaint to CIRO at any time, whether or not you have complained to your dealer. CIRO can be contacted:
  • By completing the on-line complaint form at www.ciro.ca
  • By telephone toll free at 1-877-442-4322
  • By e-mail at investorinquiries@ciro.ca
  • By fax at 1-888-497-6172

Compensation

CIRO does not order compensation or restitution to clients of Members. CIRO exists to regulate the operations, standards of practice and business conduct of its Members and their representatives with a mandate to enhance investor protection and strengthen public confidence. If you are seeking compensation, you may consider the following:

Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments

If you are not satisfied with the progress of your complaint through CIDW or CIRO, you may seek independent dispute resolution services from the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) or from the Autorité des Marchés Financiers if you live in Quebec. You may make a complaint to OBSI after you submitted your complaint to us, at either of the following times:

• If our Compliance Department has not responded to your complaint within 90 days of the date you complained, or;
• After our Compliance Department has responded to your complaint and you are not satisfied with the response. Please note that you have 180 calendar days to bring your complaint to OBSI after receiving our response.

OBSI provides an independent and impartial process for the investigation and resolution of complaints about the provision of financial services to clients. OBSI can make a nonbinding recommendation that we compensate you (up to $350,000) if it determines that you have been treated unfairly, taking into account the criteria of good financial services and business practice, relevant codes of practice or conduct, industry regulation and the law. The OBSI process is free of charge and is confidential. OBSI can be contacted:

• By telephone in Toronto at (416) 287-2877, or toll free at 1-888-451-4519
• By e-mail at ombudsman@obsi.ca

Legal Assistance

You may consider retaining a lawyer to assist with the complaint or taking other actions. You should be aware that there are legal time limits for taking civil action. A lawyer can advise you of your options and recourses. Once the applicable limitation period expires, you may lose rights to pursue some claims.

Arbitration

Arbitration is a process where a qualified arbitrator – chosen in consultation with both you and CI Digital Wealth – hears both sides and makes a final, legally binding decision about your complaint. During arbitration either side can choose to be represented by a lawyer, though this is not required. Arbitrators can award up to $500,000. There are costs to using arbitration, however it is often less than the cost of going to court. The arbitration fees themselves are usually divided between the two parties of the dispute.

Manitoba, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan

Securities regulatory authorities in these provinces have the power to, in appropriate cases, order that a person or company that has contravened securities laws in their province pay compensation to a claimant. The claimant is then able to enforce such an order as if it were a judgment of the superior court in that province. For more information, please visit:

Manitoba: www.gov.mb.ca/index.html

New Brunswick: www.fcnb.ca/en

Saskatchewan: www.fcaa.gov.sk.ca

Residents of Québec

If you are not satisfied with the outcome or with the examination of a complaint, the Autorité des marchés financiers (“AMF”) can examine your complaint and may provide dispute resolution services. If you think you are a victim of fraud, fraudulent tactics or embezzlement, you can contact the AMF to see if you meet the eligibility to submit a claim to the Fonds d’indemnisation des services financiers (“Financial Services Compensation Fund”). An indemnity up to $200,000 can be payable through monies accumulated in the fund for an eligible claim. For more information: Contact the AMF by telephone at (418) 525-0337(in Québec), or toll free at 1-877-525- 0337 or visit www.lautorite.qc.ca