Towry is in talks to buy 85 advice firms, chief executive Andrew Fisher has revealed.
The restricted wealth advisory firm has started talks with the firms, which range in size from one- to five-person operations, with a view to doubling its number of advisers over the next two years.
Towry currently has 150 advisers serving 30,000 clients across the UK. Mr Fisher anticipates a 50 per cent uplift in client numbers in line with the expansion.
Mr Fisher has employed focused headhunters to identify potential businesses for purchase, but says the firm also receives enquiries “every day” from advisers looking to sell.
Towry’s model pays advisers a basic salary, with no incentivised sales and “no financial targets”. A maximum of 7 per cent of salary can be earned as a bonus dependent on company-wide profits. 62 per cent of its advisers are currently chartered and Mr Fisher expects all current intermediaries to have achieved the status within 18 months.
Mr Fisher also lamented the state of the broader advice industry in its response to RDR. He believes the upshot of the regime is that advice will be valued, but that too many practicing advisers are continuing to charge commission simply relabelled it as a ‘fee’. He compared them to wounded deer. “I’ve never shot a deer, but I’m told that when you do they run on for a while before dying,” he said
The fact that small low-value clients are unprofitable should also not be news, according to Mr Fisher.
“People blaming the RDR for exposing that are just looking for a scapegoat,” he said. “Nowhere in the RDR does it say you can’t offer advice on a pro bono basis.”
