Chartered Financial Planning Fairstone Group has fully acquired Zimb Johnson Bespoke Financial Planning.
Zimb Johnson first joined Fairstone in 2015 as part of Fairstone’s proprietary downstream buy out (DBO) model.
The deal brings total fee income of around £850,000 to Fairstone and funds under management of almost £200m. Four staff will also join the group.
Zimb Johnson Bespoke Financial Planning was founded in 1999 and specialises in providing client-focussed wealth management services to individuals and owner-managers of private companies, as well as advice to trustees, family offices and charities.
Company principal at Zimb Johnson Bespoke Financial Planning Leigh Johnson said: “It became clear that increased regulation, compliance and reporting could restrict the time we might otherwise spend with our clients. Through working with Fairstone, we were offered significant support in these areas, combined with state-of-the-art technology and back-office systems.
“This merger is extremely exciting for us and Fairstone’s financial resources will allow us to develop the business and continue to provide high-quality and dedicated advisory services to our clients.”
CEO of Fairstone Group Lee Hartley added: “Bringing such a well-respected business into Fairstone marks an outstanding start to the year and underlines our intent to partner with high-quality firms who share our culture and are determined to grow, with our support. Having made a number of successful acquisitions in 2017 and greatly expanded our DBO programme we look forward to another successful year in 2018.
“Partner firms tell us time and again that early integration makes an enormous difference, not just to the business, but also to their clients. The DBO programme ensures that this process takes place before the point of sale, meaning our partners are already enjoying the benefits of our commercial, legal, compliance and customer acquisition support long before the completion of the DBO process. Our IFA businesses can therefore enjoy a premium on purchase due to their enhanced growth and revenue streams.”
(photograph shows, from left to right: Leigh Johnson, Zimb Johnson Bespoke Financial Planning and Scott Hopkinson, chief commercial officer at Fairstone)
