North East-based Chartered Financial Planning-focused wealth manager Fairstone has completed the acquisition of £110m AUM Nottingham IFA James Ryan Thornhill three years after first announcing the deal in June 2021.

The Nottingham IFA has been operating for 20 years and has £1m fee income, 600 clients, and a five-strong team of financial advisers supported by a seven-strong team of Paraplanners, mortgage advisers and administrative staff.

The deal used Fairstone’s downstream buy out (DBO) model which sees the business act as an investment partner, providing a centralised resource, technology, and capital to support the ongoing growth of ambitious IFAs ahead of a future sale.

Del-Ryan Rafter, director at JRT, said: “The biggest appeal of Fairstone’s proposition was that they truly valued the ‘human capital’ within the business and by this, I mean our hard-working colleagues who are vital to the day to day running of our firm’s operations.”

Lee Hartley, Fairstone chief executive, said: “I take great pride in Del-Ryan’s comments around the value we place on people. This is exactly why our DBO model adds value. We work in partnership during integration stage and embrace the skills and knowledge of the whole team.”

Fairstone’s M&A team recently celebrated a record 12 months of dealmaking, with 16 firms joining its DBO programme across the UK and Ireland and a further six full acquisitions.

It said its transaction pipeline looks strong into 2024, with a significant number of 'mature discussions' with firms in the UK and Ireland.

Fairstone has fee income of more than £135m and operates from more than 55 locations with a head office in Sunderland and a City office in London. It has financial management, private wealth, corporate solutions, mortgage solutions and estate planning channels.

The firm employs more than 1,200 operational staff and regulated advisers and oversees £15bn in funds under management for more than 55,000 wealth management clients.