CITADEL FINANCIAL Advice, a division of Royal Liver Assurance, has bought a brokerage in Dublin which specialises in the pensions sector.
The acquisition of Capital Advisory Services, based in Suffolk Street, is part of a drive of Citadel to develop a network of life and pensions brokerages throughout the State. The deal follows Citadel's acquisition of Rathmines broker Hegarty Financial Management last December.
"It's sticking with our strategy of going after pension and investment brokers in Ireland," said Paul Sutton, director of sales and marketing at Citadel. "We are hoping within the next six to eight weeks to close another three deals."
Ken Dumpleton, the principal in Capital Advisory Services, will remain with the business after the Citadel deal. Mr Sutton and Citadel's chief Des Fitzgerald will join the board of Capital Advisory Services when the deal closes.
Among other life and pensions business, the company runs the additional voluntary contribution pension scheme for prison officers. This was the first such scheme in the public sector when it was set up in the late-1980s.
"Timing is everything. The business had reached a certain critical mass. We're victims of our own success really in that we have a very large client base," Mr Dumpleton said. "We're looking after one public service AVC [ scheme] for nearly 20 years.
"A lot of these guys are coming near to retirement, which requires additional administration. For us to still grow the business, the alternative was to hire additional people, invest in additional technology and it didn't make sense. The numbers didn't add up."
