Fairstone has added £1.5bn in assets under management (AUM) by snapping up West Midlands-based Prosperity Wealth in what is its biggest acquisition to date.
Founded in 2010, Prosperity Wealth specialises in wealth management, cashflow planning, corporate financial planning and employee benefits advice.
The firm employs more than 80 people, including 49 advisers, and serves 5,000 clients across the country.
Headed by independent financial adviser Matt Bell, Prosperity Wealth first partnered with Fairstone in July 2023 through the Downstream Buy Out (DBO) programme.
Fairstone’s DBO model is designed to unlock the full potential of independent advice firms by investing in their growth during a period of partnership, before fully acquiring the business.
Now that Prosperity Wealth’s partnership period has completed, the firm will become a full part of Fairstone.
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Matt Bell, head of office at Prosperity Wealth, said: “We wanted to join Fairstone because it offers us the opportunity to create a real step-change in growth while remaining a trusted source of independent financial advice – in many respects, it’s the best of both worlds.
“Over the past two and a half years since we first partnered with Fairstone, we’ve really benefited from the excellent support we’ve received and the business has already grown substantially as a result.
“Fairstone’s commitment to client service excellence matches our own values. The greater resources, support and economies of scale they offer mean our clients benefit in the form of reduced fees, a wider choice of products and the enhanced financial security they get from being part of one of the UK and Ireland’s largest and most trusted wealth management groups.”
Prosperity Wealth’s Brierley Hill base, in Dudley, will now become Fairstone’s hub office for the West Midlands.
Each of the group’s 11 hubs across the UK and Ireland is evolving into a fully equipped operational centre, replicating head office functions and delivering a full range of services efficiently at a local level.
Mike Slater, managing director for Fairstone’s central region, said: “Prosperity Wealth’s status and influence in the region made it an obvious choice to become our hub for the West Midlands.
“Matt and his team will now be in the vanguard as we look to extend our client base across what is one of the UK’s most thriving regions.
“With the West Midlands having one of the country’s highest rates of new business formation and a rising population of entrepreneurs, business owners and senior professionals, the need for trusted, chartered, independent financial advice has never been greater.”
Fairstone is actively seeking more DBO partners in the West Midlands and across the country as it continues its nationwide expansion plans.
Russell Bignall, chief financial planning officer at Fairstone, said: “As the largest firm to have joined Fairstone in terms of client assets under management, bringing on board Prosperity Wealth is a real milestone in our growth journey.
“It is a firm with a long established and well-earned reputation for providing excellent service to its clients and for its specialist expertise in a number of different areas of the advisory market, particularly on the corporate financial planning side.
“Matt’s ambition to grow the business while keeping clients front and centre matches our own philosophy, and we’re looking forward to working together to achieve further success as Fairstone expands its footprint on a regional and national scale.”
Fairstone is one of the fastest-growing financial services organisations in the UK and Ireland.
It operates from more than 50 different locations, employs over 1,250 people serving over 60,000 wealth clients and is aiming to double client assets under management to £40bn over the next five years.
