Darlington-based mortgage, protection and wealth advisers i2i Financial Planning Group has joined Stonebridge, as the costs involved were “much less” than being part of their previous network.
i2i Financial Planning Group has become the latest major appointed representative firm to join mortgage and insurance network Stonebridge Group.
The firm is run by directors, Mike Drake and Nigel Waterfall-Brown, with advisers operating from satellite offices across the north east and east of England.
The latest addition comes after adding Midlands-based advisory practice Green and Co. Financial Services as an appointed representative in July and national property services group Shepherd Direct acquiring a stake in Stonebridge back in June.
Richard Adams, managing director of Stonebridge Group, said that his team have already begun to work closely with i2i on developing their expansion plans for the months and years ahead.
“The team at i2i appears to have been impressed by our financial model, the sales system and the range and accessibility of our product offering, which have all been a key focus for us over the past 12 months.
“We are in the process of talking to numerous other firms about joining Stonebridge and have ambitious plans with regard to taking both the network and our AR firms forward.”
Mike Drake, director of i2i Financial Planning, said: “We looked at a number of options recently with regards to the future of i2i, one of which was to become DA, however having spoken to the directors and looked closely at the proposition on offer, we decided there were greater opportunities for us in choosing to remain an AR as part of Stonebridge.
“Compared to our previous network, the costs involved in joining Stonebridge are much lower and it delivers a far better sales system, Revolution, which should free up time and allow more sales.”
Stonebridge’s expansion plans come as Tenet revealed it had seen several Sesame mortgage network members join since the latter pulled the plug on its investment network.
Mike O’Brien, managing director of TenetConnect and TenetSelect, confirmed eight non-investment firms with 44 arrangers and 14 advisers have left Sesame and joined his Leeds-based mortgage and protection network.
All eight of the firms have joined Tenet since the end of March, when Sesame announced it would no longer house retail investment advisers.
emma.hughes@ft.com
