The Financial Planning market can expect to see increased interest in acquisitions from private equity firms in the first half of 2022, according to Tilney Smith & Williamson.

Jason Hollands, managing director of corporate affairs, at Tilney said he expects to see an increasing number of US-based private equity firms looking to invest in UK-based Financial Planning businesses.

He said: “We have an active industry in the UK which is considerable in size with plenty of assets under management and room left to grow, but it is also a fragmented market.”

“There was an incredible amount of M&A activity last year with a lot of money coming in from private equity. We expect to see more of the same this year including M&A involving Planning firms.

“The availability of quite cheap financing is driving a lot of private equity activity in the UK where companies are relatively competitively priced in comparison with their US counterparts.

“There will continue to be room for smaller firms but I expect to see a lot of acquisitions this year.”

Last year saw several private equity firms funding UK Financial Planner acquisitions.

Financial Planning firm Kingswood went on an acquisition spree funded by US private equity firm Pollen Street Capital which has so far provided over £44.8m in equity to support acquisitions.

Deals in November alone included the holding company of asset manager and IFA the IBOSS Group, Smythe and Walter, a Financial Planning firm based in Faversham, Kent, and Money Matters North East, a Financial Planner based in North Yorkshire.

New Financial Planning group One Four Nine launched in October with the acquisition of Charter Financial Planning and Rice Whatmough Crozier, backed by private equity house Copper Street Capital. Earlier this month it also added Surrey-based Chartered Financial Planning firm Total Wealth Planning.