Curtis Banks has purchased wealth manager Hargreave Hale's self-invested personal pension (Sipp) book, worth around £180m.
Hargreave Hale will continue to actively manage the invested assets of the 600 Sipps, while Curtis Banks will now be responsible for the professional administration of the book.
Hargreave Hale was under the spotlight last year as it was one of several firms – the others being River & Mercantile, Artemis and Newton Investment Management - being looked into by the FCA for colluding on the price it would pay for shares coming to the market via initial public offerings.
This sale marks the tenth asset purchase by Curtis Banks – which manages more than 77,000 Sipps and small self-administered schemes (Sass) - since the company was founded in 2009.
Rupert Curtis (pictured), Curtis Banks group chief executive, said: "This book of Sipps from Hargreave Hale is a good fit for our business model and the clients will benefit from the high quality, service-led proposition that we provide.
“Having carefully taken the time to integrate Suffolk Life, our largest acquisition to date, we're able to explore further opportunities to add scale and expand our offering to greater numbers of clients."
Suffolk Life’s acquisition was concluded in 2016, with the number of Sipps administered by Curtis Banks doubling after the deal.
According to Will Self, who will replace Mr Curtis in January, investing to add high quality assets is a core component of the firm’s future growth strategy.
He said: “We also see great potential for improving organic growth, by better meeting the needs of advisers and their clients, and we'll soon launch a new Sipp product to market. We're targeting an increased rate of growth in 2019."
FTAdviser reported in September that the new product will allow automated adviser charging and offer an overhauled charging structure.
maria.espadinha@ft.com
