Chartered Financial Planning firm Fairstone has announced that it has signed up two advisory firms to its downstream buy out programme.

Fairstone says Brett & Randall Financial Services and Chilli Financial will bring in excess of £250m AUM to the group.

They are the first of an anticipated nine firms to enter Fairstone’s DBO programme this year.
 
Collectively, the deals brought a total of 13 advisers and support staff to the wider business, as well as combined revenues of around£1.8m.

Fairstone services 41,000 private clients with over £8.1bn in investment and pension assets.
 
Commenting on the latest deals, Lee Hartley, chief executive officer at Fairstone, said: “We have seen enormous growth through our DBO programme in the past year, from IFA companies who recognise the strength of our proposition and the benefits of adopting our proven approach for clients.

“Where we identify real quality in a business, we will work with those companies to achieve their growth targets, lift the regulatory burden and support them with marketing and client activation initiatives.

“This approach has led to an average organic growth rate of 15% within our existing partner firms and we look forward to bringing some of these companies to the full-acquisition stage in the coming year.”
 
He added: “The agreements reached with Brett & Randall Financial Services and Chilli Financial are very significant, not only because of the strength of these businesses but also the expertise and experience these mature companies can bring to the Group.

“We are always looking for ambitious, successful and dedicated IFA firms to join Fairstone and we can offer them a unique opportunity to expand their businesses through our unrivalled support structure.

“What is more, we will always work with these companies to ensure the well-being of their clients and their staff.”