Frenkel Topping extends its partnership programme in welcoming top tier law firm

Frenkel Topping, the Salford-based financial services group, has grown its ‘working in partnership’ programme with a 50-50 joint venture between its independent financial advisor (IFA) arm and niche law firm, Serious Injury Law.

This takes its joint ventures to nine and expands its reach into the country’s top tier law firms in its sector.

Frenkel Topping operates in the Personal Injury (PI) and Clinical Negligence (CN) sectors.

Bolton-based Serious Injury Law will join with Frenkel Topping’s IFA division to provide services under the trading name Serious Law Investments Ltd.

Serious Injury Law partners, Matthew Dixon and Ben Priestley, will act as directors of the JV company alongside chief operating officer, Mark Holt and chief financial officer, Elaine Cullen-Grant, from Frenkel Topping Group.

With the aim of delivering both a seamless legal and financial advice journey to clients involved in litigation after serious injury, the new joint venture combines the two firms’ skills and resources in the specialist area of professional services.

Serious Injury Law is the latest partnership in Frenkel Topping’s strategy to strengthen relationships with likeminded firms in the personal injury and clinical negligence space and to help introduce assets under management (AUM) to the group via its discretionary fund manager (DFM), Ascencia Investment Management.

Ascencia, which specialises in investing for vulnerable clients, has continued to demonstrate positive performance against a backdrop of wider market contraction in recent years, highlighting its expertise in managing multi-asset investment solutions that are positioned to capture the upside of market fluctuations, while aiming to reduce the negative impact of market turbulence on client assets.

Through the joint venture, Frenkel Topping will become one of Serious Injury Law’s preferred partners for clients requiring investment advice post settlement and Serious Law Investments Ltd will extend the law firm’s suite of services to meet the needs of clients with catastrophic and other very serious injuries.

Both firms were established more than 30 years ago. Serious Injury Law has dealt with some of the UK’s largest and most complex serious injury cases, building strong, trusted relationships with many of the UK’s leading medical experts, leading counsel, and national serious injury charities, since its formation in 1989. The firm specialises in high level injury cases including acquired and traumatic brain injury, and spinal injury.

Frenkel Topping Group’s work in personal injury and clinical negligence includes its signposting service inside major trauma units – via Cardinal Management – expert witness services, independent financial advice, cost consultants, discretionary fund management, and care and case management.

Both firms deliver services nationally and the joint venture between Serious Injury Law and Frenkel Topping is expected to bring AUM inflow and support future growth for both businesses.

The group’s ‘working in partnership’ programme has nurtured strong relationships in recent years with law firms who share the focus on ‘the whole client’ and recognise the importance of collaboration between key services and all affected parties after a life-changing injury.

Over the financial year the total AUM added from Frenkel Topping’s JV partners was £32.7m which represents around 25% of total AUM added during the year.

Mark Holt, chief operating officer of Frenkel Topping Group, said: “I have known and worked closely with Matthew, Ben, Tim and the team at Serious Injury Law for many years and have the utmost respect for their depth of expertise and their deserved reputation for excellence and integrity in dealing with some of the UK’s largest and most complex serious injury cases.

“Our working in partnership programme is designed to create alliances between Frenkel Topping and fellow businesses in the personal injury and clinical negligence space who share the same ethos and a mutual drive to achieve the right outcomes in litigation and beyond settlement. Our partnership with Serious Injury Law is another fantastic example of how complementary joint ventures work to the client’s benefit.”

Tim Walters, managing partner of Serious Injury Law, said: “We know from our experience how far reaching the impact of serious and catastrophic injury is.

“Our values of integrity, excellence, transparency, trust and innovation, are at the centre of every decision we make. Every organisation we work with has to share those values and our commitment to helping those affected by serious and catastrophic injury.

“Our focus is on delivering the highest possible standards of client care and service through the lifetime of each case and beyond. Our joint venture with Frenkel Topping helps us do that, and enhances the bespoke services we can offer to our clients.”.

Richard Fraser, Frenkel Topping CEO, said: “As part of our strategy to grow our core business, Frenkel Topping Limited, we are formalising our relationships with high calibre firms, like Serious Injury Law, who share our client-first mentality. Joint ventures like this one expand our network of new business referrers and demonstrate our commitment to innovate and enhance our services, ultimately supporting our objective to increase shareholder value.”