Old Mutual Wealth-backed network Intrinsic has completed the acquisition of Sesame’s Financial Adviser School.
Intrinsic reached a provisional agreement late last year to acquire the school, founded by Sesame Bankhall Group in 2011.
Back in April 2015, Sesame Bankhall Group announced the school would be wound down as part of a strategic review.
In April, Intrinsic was also selected by Sesame Bankhall Group to become their preferred adviser network partner after the latter pulled the plug on their network for investment and pension appointed representatives.
Managing director Stephen Gazard said at the time: “We will continue to support existing Financial Adviser School students, but we will no longer recruit new people into the school as we will not be able to offer them a prospective home in wealth firms within our AR network.”
Dedicated to training professional financial advisers, the school will be a key component of Old Mutual Wealth and Intrinsic’s commitment to supporting the growth and development of the adviser community.
Alongside exam support, it specialises in helping students develop the soft skills that are key to a successful career in financial planning, including training in customer service, communications, business planning and other competencies.
Students will have two study options - one for new trainees and the other for existing advisers - both of which lead to completion of the Institute of Financial Services Level fout Financial Planning diploma.
Richard Freeman, chief distribution officer at Old Mutual Wealth, said: “Sesame has built a fantastic resource dedicated to educating aspiring financial advisers and we are pleased to have the opportunity to continue to build on the exceptional foundations they have put in place.”
Andy Thompson, chief executive of Intrinsic, said: “Recruiting high-quality advisers is an important part of growing a successful business and sponsoring a trainee through the school gives firms an opportunity to enhance their business, while contributing to the development of the next generation of financial advisers.”
Last August Old Mutual’s results revealed plans to expand Intrinsic and spend £90m creating a “best-in-class” platform.
The group’s first half figures showed that Intrinsic was fully integrated into Old Mutual Wealth and increased its restricted network to 988 advisers during the first six months of last year, up from 840 in the first half of 2014.
