Auxilium will continue to be led by Mark Graves, the current chief executive, who will also retain a 25 per cent shareholding of the firm.
MAB said that combining MAB and Auxilium’s protection expertise would “massively benefit” the DA firms that Auxilium’s proposition is aimed at.
The broker firm continued that the main objective of the new partnership was to help DA firms “achieve better performance” which, in turn, will increase productivity, improve persistency, lead to higher penetration and better customer outcomes.
MAB added that Auxilium’s proposition meshed well with Consumer Duty regulations mandating that advisers should act in the best interest of the clients and avoid foreseeable harm.
Experts have said that protection will become increasingly important under the avoiding foreseeable harm principle and would place increased onus on brokers to have those conversations.
MAB: ‘Partnership…an ideal platform’
Peter Brodnicki (pictured), MAB’s CEO, said: “With Consumer Duty at the forefront of everyone’s minds, it is critical to partner with firms that are focused on consumer outcomes to help them avoid foreseeable financial harm.
“I believe the time is right to read across from MAB all the protection lessons learned to help the wider DA community, and the partnership with Auxilium gives us the ideal platform to achieve this”
He added: “We look forward to working with Mark to help Auxilium quickly become the partner of choice for those ambitious and forward-thinking firms that see protection being at heart of their business.”
Graves continued: “We are delighted to have partnered with MAB, who bring specialist resources and skills to Auxilium that will enable us to strengthen our proposition further and help more DA firms than ever before.
“They are the perfect partner for us and have an unprecedented track record of success. I look forward to working with Peter and the team to build a market-leading protection proposition for leading DA firms.”
A busy year for MAB M&A
In June this year, MAB completed the acquisition of Fluent Money for £72.7m. When it announced its agreement in March this year it said it had plans to fully acquire the business in the next six years.
The firm has also acquired a stake in Evolve Financial Solutions and invested in Heron Financial.
Last week, MAB warned that its profit before tax could be slightly below market expectations due to adverse market conditions created by the mini Budget.
