Fast-growing Financial Planning firm Perspective Financial Group said it completed nine further acquisitions in the second half of October, adding £1bn of assets under advice.

The deals also added 2,500 households as clients, six additional office locations and 48 new members of staff.

The acquisitions have expanded the group’s national footprint with new locations in Preston, Reading, Rotherham, Teesside, Towcester and Warwick.

The acquisitions included:

• Springfield Financial Services in Preston;

• Millfield Osceola Financial Consultancy in Twyford, Reading;

• Hawley & Wood Ltd in Rotherham; 

• Fortitude Financial Planning in Towcester;

• Warwick Financial Solutions in Warwick;

• Edgmoor Financial Planners in Manchester;

• Keith Mason Wealth Management in Canterbury;

• a client bank in Teesside;

• a self-employed adviser buy-out.

Vanessa Townshend, co-owner of Springfield Financial Services, said: “After 20 years of working together and growing Springfield, Tony Pilkington, managing director, decided to take retirement.

"When looking for a new owner, our main concern was continuity. With Perspective, we are confident that we have joined a company that will assist us in continuing to provide high quality, client-centric advice, and will also provide a welcoming, secure environment for all our staff.”

Greg Jones, director of Warwick Financial Solutions Ltd said: “After 40 years of looking after our wonderful clients, it was very important we found a company that had the same values as us. After nearly two years of careful research, we found a partner in Perspective who are a perfect fit for our clients and our hard-working staff team.”

Barry O’Neill, director of Edgmoor Financial Planners, said: “As a small firm, we were finding the increasing regulatory requirements onerous, when what we wanted to do was spend more time with clients. Joining Perspective allows us to do that.”

Ian Wilkinson, chief executive of Perspective, said: “The uncertainty around potential tax changes in the Budget created a desire from a number of vendors to complete transactions in an accelerated timeframe.”

The Group’s total number of acquisitions since being formed in 2008 has now reached 102.

As an indicator of the Group’s rapid rate of development, its first 50 acquisitions were achieved by March 2022, 14 years after the being founded. The subsequent 50 acquisitions were achieved in just two and a half years – an average of one transaction every two and a half weeks.

Perspective now has 625 staff, 46 local offices, 165 Financial Planners, a quarter of whom are qualified to Chartered level or above, and £9bn of assets under advice.