Succession Group has been granted full discretionary fund management permissions from the Financial Conduct Authority.
According to group chief executive Simon Chamberlain, these permissions complete the “Holy Trinity of value.”
He said: “Succession is now completely independent of all product providers, fund managers and platform providers.
“We are now the only independent company of scale to be completely vertically-integrated, benefiting from all income lines from our advisory business through to platform provision and now fund management.
“For the first time in the UK, a client will be able to be assured that the person and company they give their money to invest will give them an individual life plan, supported by full cashflow forecasting, delivered on a platform and in range of funds that are designed specifically for their individual needs.”
Succession has hired Paul McMahon, the former chief executive of FNZ and founder of the Elevate platform, to be a non-executive board member of Succession Advisory Services.
Former fund manager Raj Hallen has also joined Succession Advisory Services to overview the development of the fund management proposition.
Mr McMahon said: “Succession’s approach to platform, fund and distribution innovation is outstanding in our industry.
“The whole business is geared up to achieve Succession’s key milestones, and I am looking forward to supporting Simon and his executive team in meeting the scalability challenges of building out the dynamic platform solution, and expanding the commercial investment solutions, tailored to core markets, that meet the complex needs of high net worth clients.”
Steve Clarke, formerly of Lighthouse Group, has also joined Succession Group as HR director as part of the company’s plans to double staff numbers by 2018.
Succession Group has 350 advisers who look after £10.5bn of funds under management.
Adviser view
Greg Heath, managing director of Lancashire-based Derbyshire Booth, said: “There was a concern that if one big provider had a stake in a network they would want to make money out of it and the question was how, so you would find yourself indirectly restricted but since the FCA clamped down on incentives and full disclosure I think advisers worry about that less.”
