Jersey wealth managers merge

As UK financial planning firm agrees eighth M&A deal of 2020

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Jersey-based Advisa Wealth and the wealth management business of Vantage Limited, trading as Vantage Wealth, have merged.

The combined business will trade as Advisa Wealth and will be located at Advisa’s current offices in St Helier.

Vantage is part of the Polygon Group of companies.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Demand

Paul Wright, chief executive of Polygon Collective, said: ‘This merger is in direct response to the growing demand we have seen in the financial planning and investment advisory space for trusted and highly experienced financial planners.

“Advisa, a long-established and privately owned Jersey firm of independent financial advisers, was the perfect fit for us to join forces and become one of Jersey’s largest independent financial planning advisers.”

Trevor Griggs, Advisa director, said: “This merger comes at a crucial time as our investors are demanding ever increasing levels of professional service in such uncertain times”.

“Bringing together two complementary businesses that share the same passion of providing the highest standards of client care will strengthen our resources and allow us to expand our range of services both individual and corporate, and presents an exciting opportunity to continue our development as an innovative and dynamic financial planning business.”

Fairstone

Elsewhere in the industry, UK financial planning firm Fairstone has signed up advice company Complete Financial Planning to its downstream buy out (DBO) programme.

Complete Financial Planning is based in Hereford, and the firm specialises in pension planning and investment management.

The deal brings more than 1,600 clients, 11 advisers and 10 support staff to the wider business, as well as gross fee income of £1.5m ($1.91m, €1.64m) and funds under management of more than £140m.

Strategy

The DBO agreement is the eighth announced in 2020 and brings the total of funds under management added through Fairstone’s programme so far this year to more than £1.2bn.

The programme continues to be a core driver of growth for the business, reversing the traditional buy and build approach, with consolidation playing a key role in a firm joining the programme.

The scheme integrates advice businesses into the group within a two-year period.

Lee Hartley, Fairstone chief executive, added: “We are always looking for strong, high quality businesses with ambitious growth plans to join Fairstone.

“The strength of our DBO programme is demonstrated in the fact that all the firms we have gone on to acquire have received at least 100% of their premium sale value and many achieving much more, consolidating our position as a secure, stable and proven acquirer within the sector.”

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