National IFA firm Wren Sterling has consolidated its presence in Northern Ireland with an acquisition and merger of two adviser firms.
Ralston Bennett Financial Planning and its appointed representative business, Aspects Financial, will combine to create Wren Sterling’s first permanent base in Northern Ireland.
The two firms, which will be in Holywood and Newtownards, comprise seven financial advisers between them.
They serve clients across Northern Ireland in the private and corporate client markets respectively.
Meanwhile, Wren Sterling has also bought Callisto Wealth which serves around 140 households from its St Helens base.
The firm will join the national IFA’s North-West hub in Wilmslow, following the November acquisition of Morfitt & Turnbull.
Wren Sterling Group chief executive James Twining said: “We intend to support our new Northern Ireland management team through further acquisitions, while enabling them to grow organically through the strategic change programme we’re executing elsewhere in Wren Sterling.
“This will simplify our operations and reduce client charges through a preferred platform strategy, alongside a refreshed proposition and brand.”
Twining added: “We are also excited to welcome Andrew Platt and his team at Callisto Wealth.
“As a Chartered Financial Planner Andrew has long-lasting and trusted relationships with his clients and wants to spend more time helping his clients and less time on the non-client facing and increasingly onerous aspects of running a regulated financial services business.”
The Wren Sterling Group has added around 2,000 clients and £400m of assets with the recent three acquisitions. The group, which advise thousands of individuals and businesses, has nine UK offices and around £6.5bn in assets under advice.
It is backed by Lightyear Capital, a New York-based private equity business that specialises in financial services investments, following a secondary management buyout that took place in December 2021.
The group said 2023 is set to be a key year for its acquisition strategy with a growing list of IFA firms in the pipeline. It has also recently relaunched MFDM, its DFM solution, following its acquisition in November 2022.
In March, the group completed two acquisitions – Active Wealth Management and HB&O Financial Services. The purchases brought to the group 860 clients and £330m in assets.
