Acquisitive Financial Planning group Perspective Financial Group has acquired Cambridgeshire-based Ramsey Financial for an undisclosed sum.

The deal brings £50m in assets under management and 330 clients.

It is the 51^st acquisition for the Financial Planning group since it was founded in 2008.

Ramsey Financial is based in Huntingdon. The firm was founded by husband-and-wife team, Chartered Financial Planner Russell Palmer and wife Jane in 2007. Both founders will remain with the business.

Mr Palmer said they chose to look for an acquirer due to challenges in expanding and hiring suitable advisers to join the business.

He said: “We launched our business in 2007 and since that time we have experienced tremendous growth due to numerous recommendations from existing clients and professional connections for which we are immensely grateful.

“To sustain and grow the business further we now need help and support. We also want to be happy that we have a business that provides a continued high level of service for our clients, not just now, but long into the future. Recruitment of suitable advisers within financial services has proved difficult and the mechanics and costs of running a business, alongside providing a high level of client service, takes more and more of our time and energy.

“With this in mind, we decided the best solution for our clients and for us, was to seek a merger with a larger partner who could take many of the pressures of running the business off our shoulders as well as providing a guarantee of continuity for clients when we make our decision at some point in the future to retire.”

The acquisition will add a 22^nd office to Perspective, expanding its coverage of the Cambridgeshire and East Anglia areas. Perspective has two other offices in East Anglia in Corby and Braintree.

Ian Wilkinson, CEO of Perspective, said the firm expects to make several more acquisitions this year and next year.

He said: “This acquisition again reinforces our appeal to smaller, high quality firms such as Russell and Jane’s, who demonstrably share our client-centric values. We offer an attractive route forward so they can continue to develop their business whilst having the reassurance of a clear, sustainable succession plan when they are ready to retire for both them and their clients.”

Last month Perspective acquired four adviser firms, Searchlight Investments (Rickmansworth), Stafford Wealth Management (Hertford), TCS Life and Pensions (Oxford) and The MGroup Financial Services (Oxford), adding 915 households as clients, £335m AUM, 11 staff and two new offices in Hertford and Rickmansworth.

Perspective made eight acquisitions in 2021 including Financial Planning firm St Lawrence in Kent, Chippenham-based Avon Financial Advisers, Prolific Financial Services in Cheshire, Evolve Financial Management in Kent, Bowman Financial Planning in Oxfordshire and Quantum Portfolio Management in Lancashire.

Perspective, founded in 2008, has expanded significantly over the last two years with help from a major capital injection by CBPE Capital LLP in December 2019.