Barnett Waddingham has purchased Harsant Pensions for an undisclosed figure, in a deal which will see the firm add more than 400 Sipp and 70 SSAS clients to its existing book of business.

The acquisition of Wirral-based Harsant, announced this morning, means Barnett Waddingham's Sipp portfolio has increased to more than 2,725 schemes representing over £1bn assets under administration.

The firm, which has been in the Sipp and SSAS market since its inception in 1989, said its SSAS portfolio will grow to more than 2,100 schemes with more than £3.6bn AUA.
The deal includes Barnett Waddingham taking over the administration of a number of defined benefit and defined contribution schemes previously serviced by Harsant.

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Julia Bassett, chief executive of BWSIPP, said: "We are excited to welcome the Harsant Pensions team and its clients and advisers to Barnett Waddingham.
"The acquisition of Harsant Pensions is very much a part of our gradual and considered growth strategy.
"Harsant Pensions and Barnett Waddingham have previously worked together and so this deal is very much a natural fit for us and our long term business goals."
The firm also announced two appointments - Simon Cohen and Rebecca Carse within in its investment consulting team. The appointments took Barnett Waddingham's investment consulting team's numbers to over forty for the first time.

Mr Cohen, who will assist in driving the growth of investment consulting services in Barnett Waddingham's Amersham office, joined from JLT where he was a director. Ms Carse joined Barnett Waddingham's Bromsgrove office after leaving her role as assistant manager in Grant Thornton's pension risk solutions team.