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UK IFA acquisitions tracker: advice firm deals since 2024

371 named UK IFA and wealth firm acquisitions and investments in one free, filterable table: who's buying, who backs them, what they're buying and the source for every deal.

Published 1 Oct 2026 · Data tool · Updated 1 Oct 2026
On this page
371
named deals logged since Jan 2024
131
announced in 2026 so far
101
different buyers
£228m
median client assets of the firm, where published (140 deals, under £2bn)

UK IFA acquisitions and investments since 2024

Every named deal we've found and checked. Search by firm, buyer or town, or narrow the list with the filters. Click any row for the buyer's backer, the deal type, clients and a link to the announcement. Most rows are outright acquisitions; the tag under the firm's name shows when it was a minority stake, a client bank, a Fairstone buy-out partnership or an investment, and when a deal was agreed but not yet completed (42 rows).

371 deals
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Deals per quarter (filtered)

Most active buyers (filtered)
    One row per named firm or client bank. Assets are the client assets the source reported for that firm at announcement (assets under management or advice; click a row for which). "n/k" means not published. Price shows only an amount a source disclosed; some cover a stake or a wider group, as the row says. Data updated 1 October 2026. Free to reuse with a link to this page.

    Who is buying IFA firms?

    Consolidators, and most of them are backed by private equity. Heligan Group put buyers backed by private equity behind about 75% of the 2025 transactions it counted (Heligan, March 2026). Dyer Baade found 74% of the 92 completed UK wealth-management deals in its first-half 2026 tracker involved a private-equity-backed buyer (Dyer Baade, July 2026). The same groups come back to market quarter after quarter, as the table shows.

    The most active buyers in our data, with the backer named in their announcements:

    BuyerBacker202420252026 YTDTotal
    1. Perspective Financial GroupCharlesbank Capital Partners11211446
    2. Söderberg & PartnersKKR, TA Associates (minority)177630
    3. Finli GroupJ.C. Flowers & Co1171129
    4. Clifton Wealth PartnershipCBPE Capital010717
    5. Absolute Financial GroupInflexion Private Equity; Tatton Asset Management011415
    6. FairstoneTA Associates, Synova44715
    7. MKC WealthCabot Square Capital45615
    8. ShackletonLee Equity Partners74415
    9. Wren SterlingLightyear Capital44412
    10. Lync Wealth Management (7IM)7IM (Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan)2169
    11. Corbel PartnersBeechbrook Capital (£10m funding)0718
    12. Titan WealthParthenon Capital (majority); Ares Management, Hambleden Capital2428

    Counts are named deals of every type (acquisitions, client banks, stakes and buy-out partnerships), as announced. Some buyers have done more deals than they name: Perspective Financial Group reported 138 completed acquisitions in total on 30 April 2026 (Perspective), and more than 100 firms have joined Fairstone's Downstream Buy-Out programme (Fairstone). Use the Buyer filter in the tracker to see every named deal for one group.

    The buyers don't all work the same way:

    • Outright purchase and a regional hub. Perspective, Finli, Clifton Wealth Partnership, Absolute Financial Group and MKC Wealth buy whole firms or client banks and fold them into a nearby office, often when the founder retires.
    • Staged buy-out. Fairstone's Downstream Buy-Out starts with an initial stake, moves the firm onto its systems, then buys the rest later. The tracker tags the entry ("DBO partnership") and the full buy-out ("DBO completion") separately.
    • Minority stakes. Söderberg & Partners usually buys about 30% and leaves the owners running the business.
    • Large platform deals. Groups such as Shackleton, Titan Wealth and atomos also buy bigger firms with hundreds of millions or billions under management.

    What size of advice firm is being bought?

    Mostly small, on the figures available. 140 of the 371 deals published the firm's client assets. Leaving out the handful over £2bn (large groups and platforms that would distort the middle), the median was £228m. 85 deals published an adviser count, with a median of 4, and 29 of those firms had one or two advisers. Small deals are less likely to publish figures at all, so read these medians as a guide to the deals with figures, not the whole market.

    Client assets of the firmDealsShare
    Under £50m128%
    £50m–£100m2214%
    £100m–£250m3824%
    £250m–£500m2919%
    £500m–£1bn2717%
    £1bn+2818%

    Based on the 156 deals that published the firm's client assets. Many of the smallest deals in the table were described by the buyer as a founder or principal retiring.

    What are advice firms selling for?

    Buyers rarely publish prices for small firms. Only 11 of the 371 deals in the tracker have a disclosed amount, almost all of them listed companies or larger transactions, and some cover a stake or a wider group. Broker data gives the market picture instead:

    • About 4 times annual recurring income for smaller firms and client banks, from Chapters Capital's analysis of more than 100 transactions, with 7 to 8 times EBITDA a common base for larger firms (Chapters Capital, July 2026).
    • 4.2 times the average for offers priced on recurring income in the deals Gunner & Co analysed in the first half of 2025, up from 3.5 times in 2023–24 (Gunner & Co).
    • About 8 times EBITDA, the median among disclosed UK wealth-management transactions in Dyer Baade's first-half 2026 review, with about 7.4 times for deals under £10m and 12.4 times above (Dyer Baade).

    Payment is usually staged. Chapters gives 50% on completion and 25% at each of 12 and 24 months as an example, with earn-outs commonly running one to three years and tied to client retention. These are market observations. A firm's price depends on its actual fee income, profitability, clients, liabilities and the deal terms, which is why we don't put a value against any named firm.

    Illustrative revenue-multiple scenarios

    To see how the multiples work, enter your own figures. These scenarios are not valuations of any firm or estimates of any price paid.

    £0illustrative scenario

    Our guide to IFA business valuations in 2026 covers deal terms, tax on a sale and what one client is worth in more detail.

    What does the consolidation wave mean for advice firms?

    If you own a firm, the brokers' figures above say buyers price smaller firms mainly on recurring income. On a 4 times multiple, each ongoing client adds about four times its annual fee to the headline price (a client paying £2,500 a year would add about £10,000, as an illustration), and earn-outs pay out on clients who stay. That's our reading of the published multiples, not a valuation.

    If you work in a group that's buying, our view is that acquisitions add clients but don't by themselves create new ones, and many of the smallest deals in the table involved a founder retiring. Groups that want growth beyond acquisitions need a steady flow of new first meetings for the planners who stay.

    That's the part we work on. We book first meetings into your diary with people who have self-declared £250k+ in defined contribution pensions, reconfirmed on the call, and you pay £500 only for a qualified show. How it works sets out the show test, and pricing has a cost-per-client calculator. Related reading: how many clients a financial adviser needs and what it costs to win one.

    How do we build the tracker?

    • Sources. Trade press (Money Marketing, Financial Planning Today, Professional Adviser, FTAdviser, Citywire New Model Adviser, WealthBriefing), buyers' own news pages, corporate-finance advisers' deal announcements (Gunner & Co, Chapters Capital, MarshBerry) and stock-exchange announcements.
    • Checks. Every row was checked against a published source before it went in, and the table links to it. A second pass re-checked every published figure (assets, advisers, clients, price) against that linked source, and figures that applied to a batch of firms or to the buyer's own group were removed. If you spot an error, tell us.
    • One row per firm. When a buyer announces several firms at once, each named firm gets its own row. Batches where the firms weren't named are left out, so buyers that rarely name targets look smaller here than they are. A few rows are groups of related businesses sold together, as the source describes them.
    • Deal types. Outright acquisitions, client-bank purchases, minority stakes, Fairstone buy-out partnerships and completions, equity investments and mergers, each tagged. 42 deals were agreed but not completed when last checked.
    • Scope. UK financial advice, financial planning and wealth-management firms and client banks. We leave out pure investment managers (DFMs), mortgage-only and insurance-only firms, non-UK firms, and corporate deals between asset managers or banks.
    • Dates. The date the deal was announced. Some deals complete months later, after FCA approval of the change in control.
    • Updates. Monthly. To add a deal or correct one, send it to us with a link to the announcement.

    Totals won't match every industry count. Heligan counted 123 IFA and financial planning transactions in 2025 (133 across its wider scope), and Dyer Baade 92 completed UK wealth-management deals in the first half of 2026, using different definitions (completions, grouped announcements, wider wealth deals). The dataset is free to download as a CSV or JSON and to reuse with a link to this page.

    Data updated 1 October 2026. Every deal links to its source in the table. Market figures: Heligan Group IFA report (March 2026); Perspective Financial Group M&A update (30 April 2026); Fairstone Downstream Buy-Out programme page; Dyer Baade & Company, UK wealth management M&A 2026 mid-year review (10 July 2026); Chapters Capital, How to value an IFA client book in 2026 (July 2026, updated September 2026); Gunner & Co, Valuation multiples in IFA M&A market (30 July 2025). The calculator is illustrative and is not a valuation of any firm. InvestmentsBooked is not authorised by the FCA, does not give financial advice and does not broker, buy or value advice firms.

    FAQ

    How many IFA firms were acquired in the UK in 2025?
    Heligan Group counted 123 IFA and financial planning transactions in 2025, within 133 across its wider IFA and wealth scope (105 in 2024), and put about 75% of its counted transactions down to buyers backed by private equity. Our tracker lists 151 named 2025 deals, one row per firm, each checked against a published source. The totals differ because trackers count differently: some count an announcement covering several firms as one deal, some count completions rather than announcements, our list includes minority stakes, and some buyers never name the smaller firms or client banks they buy.
    Who is buying IFA firms in the UK?
    Mostly consolidators backed by private equity. In our data the most active buyers since 2024 are Perspective Financial Group, Söderberg & Partners, Finli Group, Clifton Wealth Partnership, Absolute Financial Group, Fairstone. Most of them buy firms outright and fold them into regional hubs. Fairstone uses a staged Downstream Buy-Out (an initial stake, full buy-out later), and Söderberg & Partners usually takes minority stakes and leaves the owners running the firm. The Deal type filter in the tracker separates these.
    What size of advice firm is being bought?
    Mostly small ones, on the figures available. 140 of the 371 deals published the firm's client assets; leaving out the few over £2bn, the median was about £228m. 85 published an adviser count, with a median of 4, and 29 of those firms had one or two advisers. Smaller deals are less likely to publish figures, so treat these medians with care.
    What is an IFA business worth in 2026?
    Brokers report smaller firms and client banks changing hands at about 4 times annual recurring income (Chapters Capital, July 2026, from more than 100 transactions). Gunner & Co recorded a 4.2 times average for offers priced on recurring income in the first half of 2025. Larger firms are usually valued on EBITDA, commonly 7 to 8 times and above 10 times for the strongest. Payment is usually staged, with earn-outs commonly running one to three years. Every firm is different, so these are market observations, not a valuation of any firm.
    Why do so few deals show a price?
    Because buyers rarely publish one. Only 11 of the 371 deals in the tracker have a disclosed amount, almost all of them listed companies or larger transactions, and some of those cover a stake or a group rather than one firm (the row says which). We don't estimate prices for named firms: published assets aren't the same as a firm's fee income, and deal terms vary. The calculator further down lets you run your own revenue-multiple scenarios.
    How do I add a deal or correct one?
    Send it through our contact form with the topic "Report a deal or correction", including a link to the announcement. We check every addition against a published source before it goes in, and we update the tracker every month.
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