National Financial Planning firm Fairstone has completed the acquisition of Goodman Chartered Financial Planners, based in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

The acquisition is North East-based Fairstone’s tenth office in the South East and increases its total number of office locations to 55.

Goodman was established more than 35 years ago and is believed to be one of the first firms in Kent to achieve Corporate Chartered Financial Planning status.

The firm has joined Fairstone through Fairstone’s progressive acquisition Downstream Buy Out (DBO) model.

Goodman adds to Fairstone £160m in assets under management, a five-strong team of advisers, eight Paraplanning and client services staff and 425 clients.

Goodman director Andy Smith said that joining Fairstone was a positive move for his company, with shared values and a belief in long term, client-centric relationships.

Mr Smith said: “Joining Fairstone was very attractive to us as their commitment to independent financial advice and their passion for a high-quality service delivery very much matched our own.

“Fairstone encouraged us to manage our clients without any need to change our approach or their investment solutions. This trust has enabled us to build and grow the business. Fairstone’s scale and expertise means we can continue to focus on growth even after acquisition which is an exciting prospect for us.”

Fairstone CEO Lee Hartley said: “Obviously Goodman were a great fit for Fairstone. Their early commitment to Chartered status and to delivering independent advice was a strong indicator of how closely we were aligned.

“Having shared values is key for the long-term success of working in partnership before moving to a full acquisition and we look forward to helping Andy and his team grow as part of Fairstone.”

Fairstone has acquired numerous Financial Planning and IFA firms over the past few years. In November it announced a deal to acquire £120m AUM Kings Lynn-based Chartered Financial Planning firm Allen Tomas & Co. The deal will add around 275 clients, 4 advisers and 8 support staff to Fairstone.