1825 acquires regional financial planning firm

1825, Standard Life’s financial planning business, is to acquire Jones Sheridan for an undisclosed sum.

Jones Sheridan is a long-standing financial planning business in Crewe, specialising in retirement planning, wealth management and wealth protection.

The deal will see the firm, which has assets under advice of around £350m, become  1825’s North West office, with 30 employees including seven advisers and four paraplanners.  

Jones Sheridan’s leadership team, headed by managing director David Williams and chairman Stuart Banks, will stay with the business post completion to help grow and develop the regional office. Williams will take up overall responsibility for the North West office and will also join the 1825 executive committee.

Williams said: “Having built the business up over the last 16 years, it now feels absolutely the right time to take it to the next stage. The breadth of the 1825 proposition will enable us to offer our clients market leading solutions for all their planning needs.

“Joining 1825 is a very natural fit for us as we are both strongly aligned to the belief that advisers add the greatest value by helping clients understand and achieve their financial goals.

“1825 can also offer us the resources and scale to enable the business to grow and prosper, while offering our people the development opportunities available by being part of a larger organisation.”

Steve Murray, 1825 chief executive, said: “As past acquirers of adviser businesses themselves, the team at Jones Sheridan are expert at making the integration process successful. They are highly motivated professionals who place clients at the heart of everything they do.”

Standard Life launched 1825 in February 2015. It has 75 financial planners advising over 9,300 clients on around £3.3bn of their assets.

The transaction is expected to complete in the final quarter of 2016, subject to certain conditions being satisfied, including receipt of regulatory approvals.