Wealth manager and Financial Planner Succession Wealth - recently bought by Aviva for £385m - has acquired £170m AUA Edinburgh-based IFA Spence & Spence for an undisclosed sum.

The deal is subject to regulatory approval.

Spence & Spence was founded in 1994 and provides holistic financial advice to clients on pensions and retirement planning, investments, mortgage and protection.

Succession said the deal was part of its plans to strengthen its foothold in Scotland.

It is Succession's second acquisition since being taken over by Aviva last August and follows the purchase of £800m AUA Yorkshire-based G+E Wealth Management in October 2022.

Succession has also acquired Pannells Financial Planning, G+E Wealth Management, JCF Financial Services, Bankhouse Financial Management and Oxford Advisory Partnership in 2022, collectively adding more than £2.2bn in assets. 

The acquisition is the 62nd for Succession Wealth since 2014.

James Stevenson, chief executive at Succession, said: “We are excited to welcome Spence & Spence to Succession and look forward to working with Charlie and his team. We see a lot of companies, but it became obvious to us very quickly that this was a high-quality business, filled with a talented Financial Planning team who share our values. Their longstanding high quality reputation in the marketplace and focus and commitment on building long-term client relationships is something that especially resonated with us.”

“Overall, we remain focused on organic growth and strategic acquisitions where we believe they will benefit both parties. This enables us to continue to be selective in our acquisitions. We continue to receive notable approaches direct from financial planning firms and from the wider marketplace across the country and we are currently in exclusivity and advanced acquisition discussions with several high-quality independent planning firms.”

Charlie Spence, director at Spence & Spence, said: “After almost three decades growing the business, this is a big step, but one we are very excited to take with Succession.”

“From our first meeting, the synergies between our two businesses were clear and with the benefit of the backing and support from a large organisation like Aviva, we can focus more on our clients and our relationships with them.”

“There has been a huge amount of support from Succession to ensure a smooth deal process and they have considerable experience when it comes to successfully integrating firms – something we are already seeing. Our priority has always been our staff and clients, and we have no doubt that they will all benefit from Succession’s breadth and depth of expertise and capabilities.”

In February, Succession Wealth was the victim of a cyber-attack. It said it notified the appropriate authorities and introduced further security measures to protect clients’ assets.

Succession Wealth was established in 2009 and is a major UK wealth manager and Financial Planner. It has 16 offices in the UK and a workforce of 600, including 200 wealth planners looking after 19,000 individuals, families and corporations. 

Succession was acquired by Aviva plc in August 2022.