Tilney buys wealth management business of Moore Stephens
Investment and financial planning group Tilney has acquired the wealth management business of Moore Stephens. The deal comes after BDO completed its purchase of the rest of Moore Stephens, which did not see the wealth management aspect of the business transfer to Britain’s fifth largest auditing and advisory firm.
Investment and financial planning group Tilney has a heritage of more than 180 years in the financial planning, investment management and advisory sector. Headquartered in Mayfair, London, the Tilney Group employs over 1,000 staff across our network of 30 offices, enabling us to support clients with a local service throughout the UK. The firm maintains a client-base of private investors, charities and professional intermediaries, who trust it with more than £24 billion in assets.
As it looks to build upon this platform, the UK-wide investment group has concluded an agreement to acquire the wealth management business of Moore Stephens, a leading UK accountancy and advisory firm, by way of a business transfer agreement. The acquisition of wealth management team brings personal, corporate and trust clients with combined assets under advice of £340 million to Tilney, as well as a team of 11 Moore Stephens staff based in London, five of whom are advisors.
The arriving team also includes two Partners of Moore Stephens: Stephen Humphreys, Head of the Moore Stephens wealth management division, who has been with the firm since 1989, and James Springham, who has been with the business since 1999. Following the deal, the team will continue to work to support clients of the firm who require financial planning and investment management services.
Commenting on the move, Stephen Humphreys, Partner, Moore Stephens Wealth Management, said, “We are very excited to be joining Tilney and have been impressed with the firm’s depth of expertise in both financial planning and investment management. Tilney also has a lot of experience advising the clients of both accountancy firms and lawyers, so the understanding and cultural fit between our team and their businesses really is excellent. The transfer will enable us to provide continuity of service to our clients but as part of a major standalone wealth management group.”
Chris Woodhouse, CEO of Tilney, expanded, “We are delighted to welcome the Moore Stephens Wealth Management team and clients to Tilney. This is a very high quality and professional business that will add further strength to our team in London. Tilney has established excellent connections with a number of major accountancy and professional services firms and we now look forward to developing an ongoing relationship with Moore Stephens over the coming years.”
The deal comes just weeks after BDO and Moore Stephens clinched a merger deal leapfrog Grant Thornton as the UK’s fifth largest professional services firm. The transaction, which did not include the wealth management portion of Moore Stephens, created an entity with a gross annual revenue of approximately £600 million.
