Independent Wealth Planners has bought Yorkshire-based Acuity Wealth Management, marking the start of a new business arm offering remote advice directly to clients.
The Yorkshire-based firm is headed up by Janet Comrie and her daughter Sarah Dougal and is one of the few mother-daughter independent advice practices in the UK. It will add £85m to IWP’s assets under administration and 228 clients.
IWP said the firm was the founding representative of IWP Advisory Services, which will provide independent financial advice to customers who are unable to travel to their local office or prefer to deal with an adviser virtually.
This service will be provided directly to clients as opposed to through IWP's local firms and advisers.
The mother and daughter are both financial planners and have worked together for more than two decades.
They are supported by four administrative staff and a paraplanner, all of whom will remain with the business following the acquisition.
Comrie said: “By partnering with IWP we can give our clients the best of both worlds. The adviser to client relationship is built on a mutual trust, and so a local and personalised service proves invaluable.
“The acquisition means the close-knit relationships we’ve fostered with our clients can be complemented by the scale and resource of IWP whose centralised support will free up more time for us to focus on helping our clients achieve their financial goals.”
Last month IWP bought Southampton-based Encompass Financial Management, as part of its expansion in Hampshire.
The deal saw IWP add £167m in assets under management and 458 clients to the firm.
It followed a flurry of activity this year, with Surrey-based Omnium Capital Limited joining IWP in June, followed by Newcastle-based Professional Wealth Management in May.
In April, IWP acquired three firms: Aberdeenshire-based Buchanan and Associates, Norfolk-based Moss and Roberts and Buckinghamshire-based Principal Financial Planning, which collectively added £400m to its Aum.
IWP focuses on the acquisition of local firms, leaving the management in the hands of local teams, who may also retain some ownership in the business.
sonia.rach@ft.com
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