Wealth manager Brewin Dolphin has reported a 25.7% rise in Financial Planning income in a buoyant set of full year results out today.

Financial Planning income jumped by £8.5m to £41.6m (FY 2020: £33.1m), boosted by upmarket wealth proposition 1762 from Brewin Dolphin and the Wealth Core propositions.

The company said Financial Planning income growth was driven by “continued growth” in demand for advice-focused services.

While Financial Planning remains a fast-growing area for the business it currently provides only about a tenth of overall income.

Total Brewin income over the 12 months increased by 12.3% to £405.9m (FY 2020: £361.4m) driven by “strong market performance and record discretionary gross inflows.”

Pre-tax profit for the year (including adjusted item) rose 16.2% from £78.2m to £90.9m although a number of exceptional costs have been incurred, the company said.

Exceptional costs were higher for the year at £18.4m (2020: £16.1m) and included a £3.6m cost in not moving to a planned new HQ at Cannon Street in the City of London as the existing HQ nearby in Smithfield Street will be retained. The company took out a lease on Cannon Street in 2019 but abandoned the plan this year and will now try to sublet the building.

Other adjusted items were in relation to incentivisation awards of £2m (2020: £1.2m) and defined benefit pension scheme past service costs of £0.4m.

Headcount rose by 9% to support business growth and technology “transformation projects” but staff took fewer holidays due to Covid-19 issues.

Overall the group saw strong total discretionary net flows of £1.9bn (FY 2020: £0.9bn), an annualised growth rate of 4.6%.

There were record discretionary gross inflows of £4bn (FY 2020: £2.8bn) and the wealth manager said there was growth across its range of propositions and investment solutions.

Total funds increased by 19.5% over the last 12 months to £56.9bn (FY 2020: £47.6bn). Total discretionary funds increased 20.9% to £49.8bn (FY 2020: £41.2bn) driven by positive net flows and strong investment performance.

Brewin CEO Robin Beer said: "We have had an exceptional year achieving record discretionary inflows and are delivering on our growth ambitions. None of this would have been possible without our people, who have adapted so effectively to remote working and continue to focus on putting our clients at the centre of all their decision making. We have remained relevant by continuing to innovate our propositions whilst also developing our digital capabilities. We have started to drive operational efficiencies through our client management system and our new custody and settlement system is now live.

“Looking ahead to FY 2022, our priority is to complete the final phased rollout of functionality for our new custody and settlement system, which will complete in summer 2022. On completion, with our new technology capabilities coupled with the operational excellence programme, we expect to capture significant synergies and benefits across the business, supporting our vision to deliver double digit earnings per share growth by 2025. We remain focused on becoming the leading advice-focused digitally enabled wealth manager in the UK and Ireland, which we believe will allow us to benefit from sector growth and capture market share."