Buckles aiming to buy three IFA firms
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Buckles is planning to buy three IFA firms in the first quarter of next year.
The news comes as chief executive Nigel Speirs has been appointed head of distribution at South African insurer Sanlam which backs Buckles. He will remain chairman of Buckles while sales director Chris Kerin becomes chief executive.
Speirs says: “The reason I have been given this job is because I understand IFAs. I was one for 23 years. We very much want to be in partnership with IFA groups and distribute through that route. My job is going to be a lot about creating relationships and getting business from them.”
He says Buckles has plans to buy three IFA firms in the first quarter of next year and it will be restarting its graduate programme in January, with the aim of recruiting 22 graduates throughout the year. He says: “We are still very much in acquisition mode and Sanlam has supported us in that. Sanlam sees Buckles as its IFA operation and, as far as I know it, has no other IFA strategy than through Buckles.”
Sanlam’s UK acquisitions over the past four years include Merchant Investors, Principal and a share of nucleus and Intrinsic. It bought a 60 per cent stake in Buckles last year.
Buckles does not use the Nucleus wrap but Speirs says: “We hope to work with Nucleus but they are very much a separate company. We have traditionally used distributor influenced funds and we design our own solutions really.”
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Readers' comments (2)
Anonymous | 26 Nov 2009 10:53 am
how you can say you are an IFA when I understand your advisers have to use your own snowdonia funds?
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Anonymous | 26 Nov 2009 2:18 pm
Not only Buckles but others like Towry Law have restricted offerings (4 I believe) and they get away with it because the FSA is incompetent, looking for the wrong things on their visits.
These firms have the whole market as available but if the adviser dares to recommend a fund other than in Buckles case, Snowdonia funds, they have to go through hoops to explain why. None of that is seen in the visits of course. Add to this the rating of the funds as Cautous to Medium and the FSA are happy. What choice for the client who wants diversity etc?
We have the same issue with SJP and again the FSA refuse to see it.
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