Expanding Financial Planner and wealth manager Fairstone has acquired £1.5bn AUM West Midlands-based wealth manager Prosperity Wealth in what it says is its largest acquisition to date.
Prosperity Wealth is based in Brierley Hill near Dudley and was founded in 2010.
It focuses on wealth management, cashflow planning, corporate Financial Planning and employee benefits advice and has 80 staff including 49 advisers. It serves more than 5,000 clients across the UK, with most based in the West Midlands.
Prosperity is headed by Matt Bell and first partnered with Fairstone in July 2023, joining Fairstone's progressive acquisition Downstream Buy Out (DBO) programme.
Mr 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 will become Fairstone’s hub office for the West Midlands, a region earmarked for further growth by Fairstone. Fairstone says its 11 hubs across the UK and Ireland are evolving into a fully equipped operational centres.
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."
Russell Bignall, chief Financial Planning officer at Fairstone, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Matt and the Prosperity Wealth team to Fairstone. 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."
Fairstone plans to grow in size to £40bn of client assets under management by the end of 2030. It operates from more than 50 different locations, employs 1,250 people and serves 60,000 wealth clients.