Fairstone adds two new firms to its DBO programme

Fairstone, one of the UK’s largest Chartered Financial Planning firms, today announces that it has signed up two new advisory firms to its downstream buy out (DBO) programme.

Chartermarque and Hammett and Petch Financial Planning have joined Fairstone, bolstering the company’s national footprint and adding a total of £200m funds under management.

Collectively, the deals bring seven new advisers and a team of support staff to the wider business as well as combined revenues of £1.4m.

Fairstone now services 41,000 private clients with over £7bn in investment and pension assets. Fairstone has seen significant success in its ambitious growth strategy, bringing seven advisory firms into its buy out programme since the beginning of 2017, most recently securing Octagon Wealth Management.

The DBO strategy enables partner firms to join Fairstone and plug-in to their significant growth support and funding before completing the buy-out at the end of an agreed integration period. Commenting on the latest deals, Lee Hartley, CEO at Fairstone, said: “When we select businesses to work with, client interests always come first.

We partner with those companies who share our determination that clients should never be treated as a commodity.

We believe this should be the foundation of any new business partnership. Through our DBO programme we are always seeking out high quality firms that share our values and from the time spent with the teams at Chartermarque and Hammett and Petch, we knew that they would embrace our vision”

Chartermarque, which has offices in Glasgow and London, focuses on pensions, wealth management and financial planning.

The company was initially attracted to Fairstone through the appeal of becoming part of a national Chartered financial planning business with regulatory and compliance support which will allow them to spend more time with their clients and expand their own firm.

Scott Morton, company principal, commented: “We are absolutely delighted to be joining Fairstone. Its Chartered status confirms that, like us, it abides by the highest professional and ethical standards and it shares our conviction on the importance of independent advice. We see this as a very positive move and believe that being part of a larger national firm will undoubtedly benefit our clients and staff.”

Hammett & Petch Financial Planning, based in Bracknell and Milton Keynes, take a personal approach to financial planning and specialise in pensions, investment and inheritance planning.

Company principals, Paul Hammett and Trevor Petch, said: “We look forward to aligning with the whole-of-market approach of Fairstone and we share their vision of how financial advice should be offered to clients.

Joining Fairstone will allow us to widen our scope and further grow the business whilst maintaining the quality of advice we currently offer.”

Speaking about how Fairstone would assist both Chartermarque and Hammett & Petch in the lead-up to the ultimate acquisition, Lee Hartley said: “We will help both firms grow in the manner that best fits their plans and the aspirations of the respective management teams – importantly we will be able to assist with the ever increasing regulatory burden.

One area where this is becoming clearly evident is that, through our ability to manage client portfolios on a low-cost discretionary basis, we are able to help our partners efficiently meet their MiFID II obligations.”