Advisory sector consolidator Bellpenny has offloaded the self-invested pension unit of Torquil Clark, the intermediary business it acquired from Skipton Building Society last summer, for a nominal price of £1.
The deal completed on Friday and was revealed in the interim results for Mattioli Woods, the wealth management and pension administration business, which boosted assets by £83m through the purchase.
Mattioli will take over the portfolio of 140 Sipp and small self-administered scheme pensions and crucially will join the self-invested pension provider panel of Bellpenny, the restricted consolidator which now controls more than £3bn in assets.
Torquil Clark was acquired from Skipton for an undisclosed sum in August 2014, in a deal which saw a total of £900m of client assets moved to Bellpenny.
Total client assets at Mattioli Woods were up 16 per cent for the six months to the end of November to a little more than £5bn, compared with £4.3bn for the first half of the year.
During the period it achieved 183 new core Sipp and Ssas schemes with £106.7m of assets. The firm’s nascent discretionary investment management business reported that assets under management stood at £870m for the period.
Results for the six months also revealed revenue was up 23.4 per cent to £16.6m, compared with £13.4m for the first half of 2014.
Bob Woods, executive chairman of Mattioli Woods, said the business and clients are set to benefit from the government’s introduction of the most radical changes to pensions in almost a century.
“We have long campaigned for individuals to be in control of their pensions and the freedom to access pension funds from age 55 and the removal of the 55 per cent tax-charge on death reposition pensions at the very forefront of financial planning.
“We believe these changes will trigger a fundamental rethink of the role of pension planning in clients’ affairs, which we expect to benefit our core pensions business.”
He added that the firm expects a reduction in banking and corporate pension revenues in the second half of this year as a result of changes in banking regulation and a move from provider commissions to fees in the employee benefits market.
ashley.wassall@ft.com, emma.hughes@ft.com
