UK Wealth Manager Acquires Financial Advisor Firm

Rachel Walsh

26 March 2009

Skerritt Consultants, a financial advisor and wealth management company based in Southeast England, has acquired Huntington Investments, the London-based firm of independent financial advisors for an undisclosed sum. The takeover comes soon after their purchase of Watkins Oram, the West Sussex-based IFA firm earlier in the month.

"As well as adding another high quality client bank to the company, this will achieve our objective of a City office and brings on board a number of high calibre staff, including the founder of Huntington, Daryl Clark,”said Richard Skerritt, managing director of Skerritt Consultants.

“The majority of our business now comes from London, mainly in the area of corporate pensions and wealth management, so this is a key strategic development for the company. Whilst many IFA and wealth management firms are finding things tough in the current economic climate, we are continuing to grow as a result of being a well financed and well managed firm," Mr Skerritt added.

Last June, Skerritt launched a wealth management arm as part of a move into discretionary management. The unit targets high net worth clients after discretionary management authorisation from the Financial Services Authority, the UK’s financial regulator.

It is headed by Andrew Merricks and Bryn Jones. The discretionary unit uses the UBS investment platform for clients with investable assets of over £250,000 (around $365,000).