Curtis Banks, the SIPP and SSAS provider agreed to make two acquisitions totalling over £50m: rival SIPP and SSAS firm Talbot and Muir and fintech provider Dunstan Thomas.

Talbot and Muir is a provider of SIPP and SSAS products distributed via Financial Planners. It administers over 7,000 pensions and has assets under administration of £3.4bn. It has around 75 staff in Nottingham and Leeds.

The total consideration for Talbot and Muir is up to £25.25m.

Dunstan Thomas is a fintech provider for wealth managers, platforms and providers. The company already provides the technology behind the new Curtis Banks secure portal. Its other clients include Canada Life, Seven IM, Aegon and Novia.

The total consideration for Dunstan Thomas is up to £27.5m.

Will Self, CEO of Curtis Banks, said: “We continue to look for the right types of business to grow Curtis Banks in the right way. We identified Talbot and Muir as a good strategic fit and are pleased to have agreed terms to bring them into the Curtis Banks Group, further consolidating our market position as one of the largest UK providers of SIPPs and SSAS.

“Technology is under-utilised in the independent SIPP market. We recently invested in a new digital platform, underpinning the launch of Your Future SIPP, and by also bringing Dunstan Thomas into our Group we’ll gain direct access to great technology to benefit our customers as well as fulfilling our diversified growth strategy.

“Dunstan Thomas is a leading fintech provider, and as our largest supplier we’ve worked with them for many years now. We see them as a core enabler for our future growth, delivering solutions that support advisers and their high net worth and mass affluent clients, both within our current market and more broadly to other associated markets while growing the support and solutions to other financial services providers. We are very excited to bring both businesses, their brands, products, services and clients into the Curtis Banks Group.”

Graham Muir, director of Talbot and Muir said: “Having founded the business in 1993 with Brian Talbot we have continued to pride ourselves on our high levels of service and technical support. To continue to grow and develop the business we felt the time was right to look for a partner that was a strategic fit and has the same values as we do.”

Chris Read, CEO of Dunstan Thomas said: “We see this acquisition as a positive step for all of our clients. Over the years we have provided solutions to companies across the industry. Our product roadmaps have been crafted and developed with the cooperation and input from all of our users. We look forward to continuing to serve our clients with the best products and solutions with performance and integrity at heart.”

Discussions on the acquisitions began prior to the introduction of the Coronavirus pandemic restrictions.

The acquisitions are subject to regulatory approval.