Sun Life Financial Services of Canada Inc.’s deal to acquire a stake in C.I. Funds was about two months in the making says Bill Holland, CEO of C.I. Fund Management Inc.

Sun Life announced Wednesday a definitive agreement to acquire a 30% interest in C.I. in exchange for Spectrum Fund Management Limited and Clarica Diversico Ltd.

The transaction, subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in July. Holland expects the companies to be fully integrated within a couple of months. “I would expect that the whole company will be under the C.I. umbrella by year end,” he says.

Under the agreement C.I. assumes responsibility for administration, marketing, product development and pricing of all retail mutual and segregated funds. Within the companies there are currently 31 money manager relationships. Holland says the company will likely reduce that number.

C.I. is not getting any employees from Clarica, and Holland says Spectrum CEO Gary Corsi, a Sun Life employee, is not included in the arrangement.

Senior Spectrum officers like Karen Bleasby, chief investment officer and Christine Lasky, vice president of marketing are included in the deal, Holland says. However, it is not yet clear what their new jobs will be.

“We’ll look at every position, both at C.I. and at Clarica and Spectrum afterwards and make sure that we get the best people in the best jobs,” he says. Overall, he guesses between 20 and 60 jobs are affected by the changes.

Bleasby says she doesn’t know specifically what her new role will be, but that her brief meetings with C.I. have been positive. “My sense is there will be a significant number of Spectrum employees that do go to C.I.,” she says.