Fast growing wealth manager and Financial Planner Perspective Financial Group has acquired Essex-based Primera Wealth Management, its 20th acquisition this year.

The latest deal, the firm’s 76th acquisition since it was founded 16 years ago, adds 340 households as clients and £205m in Assets Under Management.

The cost of the takeover has not been disclosed.

Perspective, based in Chorley, Lancashire, has made 20 acquisitions this year and continues to look for new acquisitions.

Perspective has built up a workforce of 500 staff, 38 local offices and 140 Financial Planners.

One in three of its planners are qualified to Chartered level or above.

The firm manages £8 billion of assets for clients and is about three times the size it was five years ago, it said.

CEO Ian Wilkinson said: “We feel very positive about the scale and pace of progress we have made in 2023 towards our goal of creating the best client-centric Financial Planning firm for both our clients and our people.

“Successfully completing and integrating an acquisition every two to three weeks is testament to the professionalism of our whole team.”

While the firm has grown rapidly in recent years he said his aim was for Perspective to become a better firm, not just a bigger firm. He said Perspective was “highly selective” in the firms it acquired.

He added that the average length of client relationships is 25 years and many span four generations in a family.

The Perspective Academy training arm, launched in 2014, trains about 40 people a time for careers in Financial Planning.

He added: “As a Financial Planner myself with 30 years’ experience who still advises clients, I retain a strong belief in the benefits of developing and nurturing talent in-house.”

The company is also working with universities including Northumbria, Lancaster, Leeds and Manchester to recruit more graduates for Financial Planning careers.

In a statement, Neil Donnelly and Mark Copsey, directors of Primera Wealth Management, said: “Over recent years our attention has naturally been drawn towards the future of our business and the continuation of our advice to clients well into the future.

“After an exhaustive search, one business in particular, Perspective, stood out. We are therefore delighted to join them, as their ethos, ethics and client focused approach fully align with our own values.”

Private equity firm CBPE Capital LLP is a major backer of Perspective.