Fast-growing wealth manager acquires two Aberdeen firms and opens new hub

The group has bought independent financial advisory firms City Gate Aberdeen and Albyn Associates, both of whom are based in the Granite City. The two practices have relocated to Fairstone’s new hub in Westhill on the outskirts of Aberdeen, where they join the rest of the group’s existing operation in the city.

Fairstone chief executive Steven Cooper said: “This is a significant move for us in a strategically important area of the UK where we see great potential for further expansion. Aberdeen and northern Scotland have a strong tradition of entrepreneurial, internationally connected businesses which are increasingly shaped by the energy transition.

“We see this creating strong demand for the kind of sophisticated financial planning, private wealth and intergenerational advice which we specialise in.

“We’re looking forward to helping many more families and individuals in the region to make confident decisions to shape their financial futures.”

City Gate Aberdeen was founded September 2002 and provides clients with a wide range of financial planning, mortgage and protection services, managing more than £100 million of assets. The firm first partnered with Fairstone in 2023 through the group’s downstream buy out (DBO) programme.

Albyn Associates was founded in 1998 and offers a wide range of financial planning and mortgage services, managing in excess of £80m of assets. Headed by independent financial advisers Colin MacLennan and Charlie Thomson, Albyn Associates signed up to the DBO programme in December 2023.

MacLennan said: “We joined Fairstone to strengthen the support we can offer to clients. It’s enabled us to meet increasing regulatory, technology and governance requirements, while giving us access to colleagues who are specialists across all areas of financial planning.”

Fairstone is one of the fastest growing financial services organisations in the UK and Ireland with some £22 billion of client assets under management. It operates from more than 50 locations, serving around 65,000 wealth clients and 60,000 mortgage clients.