Mattioli Woods started life as a Leicestershire-based boutique pensions consultancy in 1991, dealing chiefly in small self-administered scheme (Ssas) and self-invested personal pension (Sipp) instructions.
Sixteen acquisitions and 25 years later, the business has evolved into an Aim-listed wealth management and employee benefits specialist with nine offices across the UK, turning in a £40m profit.
What has been particularly noteworthy about the business is the rapid acceleration of its trajectory in recent years. Since 2012, assets under advice and administration have more than doubled, now standing at £6.61bn.
Gibson came to the company in 2013, following Mattioli Woods’ acquisition of Thoroughbred Wealth Management and its subsidiary Atkinson Bolton Consulting (ABC), where Gibson was based. Discretionary management was not always a part of Mattioli Woods’ business, nor ABC’s, but it is safe to say it has now become the firm’s bread and butter.
Though Mattioli Woods has expanded rapidly within the past three years, during which period more than half of its acquisitions have occurred, Gibson stresses the group is highly selective in choosing the right target company.
“We wouldn’t describe ourselves as consolidated in any way shape or form,” he says.
“Our trajectory is very much the twin targets of organic growth and acquisitions. We are not concentrated on the latter over organic growth but, of course, that’s what makes the headlines. In an ideal world, we want those two things to work well together.”
As for potential acquisitions in the pipeline, “they’ve got to fit”, says Gibson.
“We have brought in other Sipp and Ssas trustees, employee benefits and wealth management to the business. I can’t honestly tell you what the next one will be, but it will be what we need, what fits within the business. It is important we make sensible acquisitions, not purchases just for the sake of it.”
Do the right thing
Like many others in the profession, the team at Mattioli Woods has been striving to reduce total expense ratios by cutting client fees, both for the underlying investments and the peripheral fees that cover platforms and technology.
“That is one of our stated objectives as a group but it’s not an overnight thing,” he says. “We continue to work on that every day. Clients do have to remember that cheap is not necessarily best, in the same way that paying a lot of money doesn’t necessarily guarantee quality. That’s an important balance. We only exist because of our clients so it’s important we get what we do for them as right as it can be.”
