Armstrong Watson acquires Burnetts Solicitors financial services arm

Burnetts Solicitors and Armstrong Watson are pleased to announce that Armstrong Watson has acquired the financial services business of Burnetts Solicitors. 

The deal between the two firms took effect on 1^st of September 2021. 

The Partners of Burnetts, one of the biggest law firms in the north, made the strategic decision to focus on the provision of high-quality legal advice and concluded that due to increasing demands in the regulation of financial services advice, their financial services client base would be better served by partnering with a firm that specialises in providing financial advice. 

Armstrong Watson is the only top 30 accountancy firm to have an in-house team of Chartered Financial Planners and in-house asset management expertise. Its long-established financial planning division has been providing financial advice to clients for almost 50 years. 

Armstrong Watson Financial Planning Ltd is headed up by Managing Director Iain Lightfoot and Head of Advice David Squire. Across the firm’s 16 offices, they lead a team of 18 Independent Financial Planning Consultants who will now be joined by Tony Irving, Burnetts’ highly-experienced Independent Financial Adviser who has been involved in financial services for more than 35 years.

Armstrong Watson has offices in the same locations as Burnetts, and is well placed to provide clients with the same high-quality service and advice that they have been used to receiving. 

Nick Gutteridge, Managing Partner at Burnetts, said: “The legal side of our business has been growing consistently over the last few years and this combined with the increasingly complicated regulation of financial services led us to seek a partner to acquire the financial services arm of Burnetts. Armstrong Watson is a very natural choice – its services, like ours, are well respected and we trust its skilled team will look after our financial services clients well. This will free us up to concentrate on our legal work and we have plans for further significant growth of Burnetts in both Cumbria and Newcastle in the coming years.” 

Paul Dickson, Chief Executive and Managing Partner at Armstrong Watson, commented: “With both firms being long-established firms in Carlisle, Newcastle, Penrith and West Cumbria, we have many existing mutual client relationships and both firms share common values, making the transition of Burnetts financial services over to Armstrong Watson one that makes good sense for clients to ensure that they continue to receive the highest quality of financial advice.”