Independent Wealth Planners has continued its buying spree in a deal which adds £58m in assets under advice to the rapidly expanding consolidator.
The acquisition of Solihull-based Beyond Financial is the consolidator's thirteenth deal since it came to market towards the end of last year with ambitions of securing £2bn of client assets in the first quarter of 2020.
The newly acquired financial planning firm will join IWP's office in the West Midlands, Alexander Grace, and its director Tony O’Driscoll will remain at the business.
Neil Padget, chief executive of Alexander Grace, said the acquisition was a "great first step" in the company's growth plans.
It follows a string of deals for IWP this year in a spree undeterred by the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and national lockdown.
In June the consolidator sealed a deal with Stevenage-based financial planning firm Richmond House Wealth Management in a move which saw it gain £250m in assets under management and eight advisers. In the same month it gained control of a further £70m in assets with the purchase of a financial planning firm in Cornwall.
IWP boss David Inglesfield has previously shed light on the consolidator's buying process, telling a webinar hosted by broker Gunner & Co in July that advisers without defined benefit work were "significantly" more attractive.
Mr Inglesfield said it was "relatively unusual" to find a seller with no transfer cases, but in 80 per cent of the defined benefit books IWP considers as part of a sale there was a "high proportion" of "unclear cases".
However the advice boss said often these could be brought to a "suitable standard" because "there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the advice" but instead insufficient documentation or detail on the file.
IWP also has plans to grow organically outside of the acquisition space, revealing earlier this year it was set to launch an adviser academy in 2021 in a move it hoped would eventually see 50 advisers graduate to join the business each year.
rachel.mortimer@ft.com
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