Toronto-based Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is approaching the final steps in the restructuring of its wealth-management unit and now appears ready to execute on its longer-term strategy of serving wealthy and ultra-wealthy clients in key hubs in North America, the British Isles and Asia.

In addition, the revamped wealth-management and insurance business line will have a new leader: Doug Guzman, who will shift over from RBC’s investment banking arm on Nov. 1, in time for the new fiscal year. Guzman replaces George Lewis, who will help in the transition period and stay on as a senior portfolio manager with RBC’s asset-management unit.

“Through [Guzman’s] leadership of RBC’s investment banking business over the last eight years, he has strengthened his global perspective and this, coupled with his unparalleled client focus, positions him well to lead this strategically important business for RBC,” says Dave McKay, RBC’s president and CEO in a statement announcing the appointment.

Guzman will step into his new role at around the same time that RBC is expected to close on its blockbuster $5.4 billion deal to acquire Los Angeles-based bank City National Corp., which was announced in January. The deal will allow RBC to expand its wealth-management business in the U.S., particularly to high net-worth (HNW) and ultra high net-worth (UHNW) clients, and gives it the opportunity to cross-sell its other products and services.

However, RBC has also been busy paring down by consolidating existing lines of businesses, or exiting them entirely. In November 2014, the bank shut down its international client wealth-management business in the Caribbean as well as certain international private banking groups in Canada and the U.S. It also sold its Jamaican subsidiary last year and its subsidiary in Suriname this year. This month, the bank sold its RBC Suisse private banking business to SYZ Group of Switzerland.

Exiting global wealth-management markets that aren’t working, as RBC and some other global banks have done, helps simplify the business, says Michael King, an associate professor of finance at the Ivey Business School at Western University in London, Ont.

“We’ve seen, outside Canada, a number of banks closing down operations in many emerging markets that have not been profitable, are very time intensive for senior management, and risky from a compliance point of view,” King says.

Speaking during a conference call in May, and addressing a question about certain recent credit loss provisions posted by the wealth-management unit, Lewis acknowledged that the bank’s performance in some markets had not measured up.

“These occurred in smaller centres and ones that are part of our re-examination of strategy,” Lewis said. “The lesson learned from a business perspective is to align your risk and reward, stick to your risk appetite, and focus on your larger and high-performing businesses, which is what we’re doing.”

RBC’s track record indicates that it’s willing to exit markets or businesses that are not working, says one banking analyst.

“RBC tends to be a very disciplined bank,” says John Van Boxmeer, senior vice president with Toronto-based credit-rating agency DBRS Ltd.’s Canadian financial institutions ratings group. “They will try things, and if they don’t work out, they can make the hard decisions and move on.”

In the bigger picture, RBC’s wealth-management division has performed strongly. The bank’s global asset-management business, for example, boasts $370 billion in assets under management as of the second quarter, one-third of that coming from clients outside of Canada, the bank reports.

“[RBC Wealth Management] is definitely coming from a position of strength,” Van Boxmeer says. “Particularly with the City National deal coming online [soon].”

As with the other Canadian banks, RBC has put a strategic focus on growing its wealth-management business. The Canadian domestic retail market continues to show weakness, analysts say, and wealth management offers Canadian banks the opportunity to grow a business that is not capital intensive and takes advantage of global demographic trends, including an anticipated massive generational transfer of wealth.

“Nobody has ever seen such wealth being transferred from one generation to another,” says Raj Kothari, managing partner for the Greater Toronto Area with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Toronto. “The banks recognize that there is going to be a shift in where this wealth is sitting, [a shift] from Institution A to Institution B. So it’s important for them to be on top of it.”