Two Financial Planning firms join Fairstone group
Fast-growing Chartered Financial Planning firm Fairstone has added two Financial Planning firms to its downstream buy out (DBO) programme which will ultimately see them acquired.
Chartermarque and Hammett and Petch Financial Planning have joined the business, adding £200m in funds under management. The cost of the deals has not been disclosed.
The deals mean seven new advisers and a team of support staff join the group which will see a revenue boost of £1.4m. Fairstone now has 41,000 clients with over £7bn in investment and pension assets under advice.
Chartermarque has offices in Glasgow and London and focuses on pensions, wealth management and Financial Planning.
Scott Morton, company principal, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be joining Fairstone. Its Chartered status confirms that, like us, it abides by the highest professional and ethical standards and it shares our conviction on the importance of independent advice. We see this as a very positive move and believe that being part of a larger national firm will undoubtedly benefit our clients and staff.”
Hammett & Petch Financial Planning, based in Bracknell and Milton Keynes, specialise in pensions, investment and inheritance planning.
Company principals, Paul Hammett and Trevor Petch, said: “We look forward to aligning with the whole-of-market approach of Fairstone and we share their vision of how financial advice should be offered to clients. Joining Fairstone will allow us to widen our scope and further grow the business whilst maintaining the quality of advice we currently offer.”
Fairstone has added seven advisory firms to its buy out programme since the beginning of 2017, most recently securing Octagon Wealth Management.
The DBO strategy enables partner firms to join Fairstone and use their support and funding before completing the buy-out at the end of an agreed integration period.
Lee Hartley, Fairstone chief executive, said: “We will help both firms grow in the manner that best fits their plans and the aspirations of the respective management teams - importantly we will be able to assist with the ever increasing regulatory burden.
“One area where this is becoming clearly evident is that, through our ability to manage client portfolios on a low-cost discretionary basis, we are able to help our partners efficiently meet their MiFID II obligations.”