National adviser partnership Beaufort Financial has announced a joint venture with a wills and legal advice firm.
WLS Financial Services has established with Wills and Legal Services Ltd, a national paralegal firm based in Malvern which was founded in 2011 and specialises in will writing, setting up powers of attorney and trusts.
The firm will be an appointed representative of Beaufort Financial and will recruit a team of national financial advisers to work alongside the 25 existing paralegals who advise some 120,000 private clients in England and Wales.
The news comes after Beaufort added two offices to its national partnership of appointed representatives in August and established its first presence in Wales in July.
Jason Lloyd, formerly of Stirling House and Blackfinch Investments, has been appointed to head up the financial advice business. He said the firm had "ambitious plans".
"Rather than outsource financial planning to third parties, which is what most firms in our sector do, we established our own professional and independent financial planning arm," said Mr Lloyd. "This is in the best interest of our clients and enables us to offer a full range of services to them."
"Maintaining whole of market independent status is a necessity and will be fundamental to the success of the business," said Mr Lloyd.
Beaufort Financial operates a nationwide network of 17 whole of market IFA firms advising more than 12,000 clients.
Its parent group also owns a discretionary fund management company, Beaufort Investment, which has almost £1bn in funds under management from private clients, trusts, charities and corporate bodies.
