Towergate Financial, the financial advisory arm of the UK’s Towergate Group, has acquired A1 Financial Services, an advisory firm based in West Yorkshire. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Following the deal A1 will comprise part of Towergate Financial’s North region, with regional managing director Simon Jones at the helm. A1’s founder Mel Jones will be staying on at the firm to help Jones with the transition.

Towergate simultaneously announced the appointment of Dan Saulter as its new chief operating officer, a promotion from business development director.

In his new role, in which he reports to chief executive Ian Darby, Saulter will be responsible for running four of the firm’s businesses in Scotland and eastern England, while also continuing with his existing duties in business development, marketing and acquisitions.

Saulter is a founding director of Towergate Financial and has been instrumental in developing both its private client offering and its Transition Toolkit for IFAs. This is a package designed to help firms make the shift to a recurring fee model ahead of the implementation of the UK regulator's Retail Distribution Review at the end of 2012.