Wealth manager and Financial Planner Brooks Macdonald has completed the acquisition of Norwich-based Lucas Fettes Financial Planning for an undisclosed amount.

Lucas Fettes has around £890m assets under advice, spread across 1,600 personal clients, plus around £300m assets under influence from more than 300 corporate and employee benefits clients.

It will be integrated into Brooks Macdonald’s direct wealth business. The firm said the acquisition will enhance its Financial Planning capability and its presence in East Anglia.

The deal was first announced in September.

Andrea Montague, chief executive of Brooks Macdonald, said:
I’m excited to formally welcome our new colleagues into the group expanding our expertise in Financial Planning to serve more clients across the UK.”

Mark Brown, managing director of Lucas Fettes, said: “We look forward to supporting future growth as part of their developing high-quality Financial Planning division.” 

Brooks Macdonald Group was founded in 1991 and provides wealth management services in the UK. The group began trading on AIM in 2005 and had discretionary FUM of £17.9bn as of 30 September.

The business has been striving to recover after being hit by net outflows last year and cutting 10% of staff. Last autumn Brooks Macdonald announced that it would reduce its headcount to cut costs annually by £4m. The firm axed around 55 jobs, about 10% of its workforce, as part of the cost-saving measures.

Brooks Macdonald said the cuts from its 512-strong workforce were designed to ensure it is, “set up for success, organised to deliver its strategy and drive growth.”

In September it sold its £2.3bn FUM international arm to wealth manager Canaccord Genuity Wealth (International) Holdings Limited for £50.85m.

Last month it bought Welsh Chartered Financial Planning firm CST Wealth Management for an undisclosed sum.

The move followed the £45m acquisition of £1.61bn AUM Manchester-based LIFT-Financial in October.