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Towry's looks set on further expansion
The advisory firm is currently negotiating with IFA firms as part of its continuing acquisition trail, according to its chief executive
Financial advisers Towry Law is continuing its acquisition strategy and is considering buying a number of IFA firms according to its group chief executive Andrew Fisher.
He added that it is approaching IFAs everyday and it wants people who want to be part of the financial advisers.
Mr Fisher said: “We are looking at a number of transactions at the moment we are looking at about 10 firms at the moment. We are a long way down the line with a couple, reasonably far down the line with five and there are three we are doing due diligence with.
"We approach IFAs every day now and we view lots and lots, and we do a deal on one in every 20 or 30 firms. We are acquiring people who develop into the new world of wealth advice, being fee based and being fully professionally qualified. People who enjoy being part of company that is profitable and fully capitalised, if they are happy to be employees of a company and part of the company of that company in terms of a shareholder we have a discussion with them. Our objective is to grow the business through acquisitions and organically. Given the state of the market there are lots of opportunities to acquire and we are keen to participate.”
In 2007 Towry Law bought Baker Tilly Financial Services , the financial advisory division within accountancy firm Baker Tilly and the UK activities of MLP Private Finance. This was followed by the acquisitions of regional firms, McGowan in St Andrews in Scotland, Analysis in L'Derry, Northern Ireland and Hazlems Financial which is based in London.
Last year it bought London-based intermediary Hazlems Financial and in 2006 it bought John Scott & Partners.
Mr Fisher who is chairman of the Personal Finance Society’s leaders’ summit steering group which identifies key issues impacting on the retail financial services market, added: “The way we manage money is on a discretionary basis – we will continue to bring in substantial assets on the back of our holistic financial planning. We want to continue to grow and make more profits. We have the Towry Law master’s programme, everyone has the opportunity to take qualifications in their respective fields, so if they work as a financial adviser, HR or IT. Everyone in the advice area is aiming towards Chartered status, and we expect everyone to have diploma level within 18 months of joining and 75 per cent are of diploma level.”
