Bankfield Financial Advisers

Family has always been a key driver in Ajay Naik’s business life.

The business principal at Fairstone East Midlands started his career in financial advice in the firm which his father ran.

And when the time came to consider the future direction of the firm, family once again played a key role.

A family business

“We were a family business originally and over time, your clients become family themselves,” says Ajay.

“My father was looking at a potential exit down the line and looking at his options so it made sense for me to join the board and look at how we took the business to the next level.

“We started talking to the people at Fairstone and from early on in the discussions with Fairstone’s team that notion of family and family values and a family ethos was very much present and that was incredibly attractive to us.”

Independent advice

Fairstone’s approach to retaining independent advice was also important.

Ajay explains: “Previously we were part of one of the largest advice networks and it got to the stage where we were starting to feel a bit restricted in terms of what we could do.

“Staying independent was really important to us because we always wanted to be able to give the very best solutions for our clients.”

The Fairstone difference

Another thing which Ajay noticed was how different Fairstone were to other organisations looking to acquire financial advisory businesses.

He explains: “You hear that term ‘consolidator’ a lot and one thing I can say for certain is that Fairstone are not a consolidator – they really do invest in your business from day one.

“With Fairstone, everyone is on the same team. It’s not an ‘us and them’ situation, we are all in it together. They’re investing in your business and we are all trying to grow that business and we all benefit from the additional capital value that’s generated from that growth.

Peace of mind

“And that family ethos is really important. It’s something that’s given me incredible peace of mind knowing that whatever happens to me, the Fairstone family will rally round me and my clients.”

The opportunity to not just sell the business but to get help to grow the business before the sale – a hallmark of the DBO model – also proved highly attractive.

Additional funding support

“The additional support you get from Fairstone in terms of funding was fantastic,” says Ajay.

“If you want to do additional acquisitions, they’re really open to that and really supportive. Having done acquisitions within the DBO, the due diligence that the Fairstone team does on your behalf is phenomenal.

A new practice

After successfully completing the DBO and becoming part of Fairstone, Ajay is now heading up a new practice being set up as part of Fairstone’s Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) initiative.

Specially designed for people with the vision and entrepreneurial spirit to contribute to Fairstone’s national hub strategy, the SPV programme allows principals to start, build and ultimately sell a new business of significant scale.

“After the DBO was completed, Fairstone very quickly offered me the opportunity to go again and build another business from scratch, with the support of their funding, their client acquisition programme and their national infrastructure,” Ajay explains.

Following suit

It appears he is very happy with the results – and says others should think about doing the same.

“I would recommend to any firm principal who’s thinking about their options to come and have a chat with Fairstone and meet their people.

“I have fun on a daily basis – how many firm principals can say they’re laughing and having a great time every single day?”

Interested in learning more?

To find out more about Fairstone’s DBO model, contact Fairstone M&A Team Business Development Executive Euan Morris today.