Acquisitive wealth management firm Fairstone has added more than £2bn of client assets under management after snapping up eight firms in the first three months of 2026.
The Sunderland-headquartered business added practices in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland during the first quarter of the year as it fulfilled its prediction of a step-change in growth.
The deals included Fairstone’s largest purchase to date – the acquisition of West Midlands wealth management and corporate financial planning specialist Prosperity Wealth in February.
Added to Prosperity have been the acquisitions of firms in Northern Scotland, Northern Ireland, the South of England, the West Country, the East Midlands and the North East of England as Fairstone expands and strengthens its geographic footprint across the UK.
Fairstone chief executive Steven Cooper said: “I said in January that I expected a busy first full year as CEO and that has certainly been the case so far.
“In just the first quarter of the year, we have added substantially to the business, not only in terms of the bare figures of client assets under management, but also in terms of our strategic presence and the depth and breadth of the services which we can offer our clients.
“For example, bringing Prosperity on board has added substantially to our expertise in areas such as corporate financial planning and employee benefits.”
All eight firms acquired in the first quarter of 2026 were brought into Fairstone via the Downstream Buy-Out (DBO) model.
The DBO offers initial, minority equity investment, operational resource, and regulatory support to partner firms, allowing them to focus on unlocking growth and building profitability without being held back by increasing regulatory headwinds or by back-office or compliance workload.
Partner firms, once fully integrated, are then able to sell to Fairstone.
Steve McNicol, chief development officer at Fairstone, added: “Much of the rest of 2026 is already mapped out for Partner Firms planning to complete their DBO journey, culminating in their full acquisition this calendar year.
“One of the great benefits of the ability to consistently bring the right firms into the DBO programme is that this translates directly into a highly predictable pipeline of full acquisitions, delivering certainty for principals and for Fairstone.
“We have a further 13 acquisitions scheduled before the end of the year with firms that will have completed a partnership period with us spanning anywhere from one to five years.”
