UK wealth manager Saltus has launched an operation to partner with financial planning businesses to maximise their value, whether that is driving performance and growth or considering options for selling.
The Saltus Partnership Programme will work with firms to address the biggest challenges throughout their lifecycle – from scaling their businesses to eventual exit. It will provide a set of resources, including specialist teams, advice and financial support to help firms make the most of their opportunities, enhance the service they offer to clients and enable them to scale most effectively.
The service has been designed so that advisers can maximise capital value in their business and realise it at a time of their choosing, either along the growth journey or when they are ready to exit.
It enables financial planning business owners to pick and choose a model and approach that fits them as partners. Operational support spans compliance, technology, HR, bookkeeping, marketing, sales, and growth capital.
The programme launches with three partners: Temple Row, Calton Wealth Management and Indaba, who collectively manage over £200m ($250m, €233m) of assets. The business unit is being led by Saltus partner Mike Stimpson.
Limited options
Stimpson said: “This programme is about giving advisers a habitat they can thrive in, where they can offload all the difficulties and challenges that come with growth and continue doing what they love, looking after and delivering for their clients.
“As financial planning businesses scale, the complexity of delivery increases exponentially and can significantly limit growth potential. As a firm takes on more clients, it needs more advisers to deliver – all while the regulatory burden increases. At present, the only options available to an ambitious, entrepreneurial financial planner are to remain a small firm or to become part of a network, with no middle way for someone wanting to retain control over their business and scale at the same time.
“Fundamentally, the Saltus Partnership Programme is designed for advisers that want to maximise value and maintain control of their own destiny whether they are at the beginning or the end of the business journey.
“They care deeply about the service their clients receive, are being constrained by the compliance, technology and capital challenges they face, and who feel unable to maximise the value of their business due to a lack of access to growth capital. The Saltus Partnership Programme removes the negatives and does so in a commercially sustainable way. It is the antidote to networks and the way things have been done in the past.”
Saltus employs more than 200 people and manages client assets of more than £3bn.