Advice firm Saunderson House, which is part of Rathbones, is to move from an independent structure to a restricted advice model.
The company declined to comment but it is understood this move came after a detailed assessment of how best to deliver an enhanced suite of wealth management services to Rathbones and Saunderson House’s financial planning clients.
Based on the assessment, the company decided to move from independent to restricted advice status.
It is also understood the services will draw upon all investment solutions from across Rathbones.
Last June, Rathbones agreed a deal to buy advice firm Saunderson House for £150m, a move that added £4.7bn to its assets under management and accelerated consolidation in the advice space.
The acquisition saw Rathbones’ in-house financial planner numbers increase from 25 to 80, and added around 2,200 clients with an average portfolio size of £2.2m.
At the time, Rathbones said the deal would boost its financial planning assets to £8.3bn and make it the UK’s third largest wealth manager with £61bn in total AUM.
Saunderson House's parent IFG Group was taken private by private equity firm Epiris in 2019 in a £206m deal. IFG’s other business, Sipp and platform provider James Hay, is not part of the Rathbones deal.
sonia.rach@ft.com
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