UK wealth manager Bellpenny has completed its biggest acquisition to date with the purchase of Surrey-based IFA MDM Associates, increasing its assets by £322 million($531.1 million).

UK wealth manager Bellpenny has completed its biggest acquisition to date with the purchase of Surrey-based IFA MDM Associates, increasing its assets by £322 million($531.1 million).

The deal is the fourth this year and brings the total number of acquisitions completed by Bellpenny to date to 17, Bellpenny said in a statement.

Bellpenny said that the majority of MDM's clients live in London and the home counties and that there was an even split between pensions and investment business.

“This is the biggest deal we’ve completed to date and is all the more notable because MDM has long been established as one of the foremost IFA businesses in the south of England. Clients transferring across Bellpenny will rightly have very high expectations that we will maintain the high standard of care they’ve become accustomed to and we will spare no effort in delivering on this,” said Bellpenny’s CEO Kevin Ronaldson.

The purchase of MDM follows the acquisition earlier this week of of Essex-based Personal & Corporate Financial Solutions, which brought in £21 million of funds under management.

Since the introduction of the Retail Distribution Review programme of regulation changes last year, many small firms have struggled with the transition, resulting in an increasing number of businesses looking to sell or consolidate with bigger players. A number of firms, such as Syndicate Asset Management, Focus Financial and Sanlam, to name just a few, have bought up IFA businesses.

For an exclusive interview with the chief executive of Bellpenny, Kevin Ronaldson, about how compliance is fuelling the consolidation of firms, click here.