Partnership Programme Grows with CFG Law Joint Venture

Frenkel Topping Group plc (AIM: FEN), a specialist professional and financial services firm operating in the Personal Injury (PI) Clinical Negligence (CN) space , is pleased to announce that the Group, has extended its ‘Working in Partnership’ programme with a 50:50 joint venture (JV) between its IFA arm and law firm, CFG Law, taking its joint ventures to eight in the Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence space.

The joint venture sees CFG Law, part of the Client First Group, provide services jointly with Frenkel Topping’s independent financial advice division, under the trading name CFG Financial Services Limited (“CFGFS”).

CFG CEO, Richard Clark, and Executive Chairman Alastair Fernie will act as directors of the company alongside Chief Operating Officer, Mark Holt and Chief Financial Officer Elaine Cullen-Grant from Frenkel Topping Group.

With the aim of delivering both a seamless legal and financial advice journey to clients involved in litigation after injury, illness or clinical negligence, the new joint venture combines the two firms’ skills and resources in the specialist area of professional services.

CFG is the latest in Frenkel Topping’s strategy to strengthen relationships with likeminded firms in the Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence space. The Group’s seven other JVs have added c.£68.5m of Assets Under Management (“AUM”) to the Company to date and represented 16% of AUM added in the last financial year. The Board is confident that this JV with CFG will add to this and that the “Working in Partnership” programme continues to bear fruit and be a critical inflow of AUM for the Group in the future.

Through the CFGFS joint venture, Frenkel Topping will become CFG’s preferred partner for clients who require investment advice post settlement and CFG Financial Services Ltd will extend the law firm’s suite of services to meet the needs of the most complex client.

Both firms are well established in the PI industry, established more than 30 years ago. CFG Law is a purpose-led business supporting seriously and catastrophically injured people and their families through its award-winning Client First Service. It works in partnership with a range of organisations in line with its purpose of ‘helping those affected by injury – together’ and has built a strong reputation in the serious injury market for its work on serious and catastrophic injury claims, including serious brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, orthopaedic injuries, fatal accidents, chronic pain, PTSD and more.

Frenkel Topping Group’s work in PI and Clin Neg includes its signposting service inside Major Trauma Units (via Cardinal Management Ltd), expert witness services, independent financial advice, cost consultants, investment management, and care and case management.

The Group’s ‘Working in Partnership’ programme has nurtured strong relationships with law firms in recent years who share the focus on ‘the whole client’ and recognise the importance of collaboration between key services and all affected parties after a life-changing injury. Through the Group’s recent partnership with Haus Advisory Limited, Frenkel Topping has extended its suite of services to support its joint venture firms by providing a mortgage advice and brokerage service to employees and clients.

Both firms deliver services nationally and the joint venture between CFG and Frenkel Topping is expected to bring synergies, AUM inflow and support future growth for both businesses.

Mark Holt, Chief Operating Officer of Frenkel Topping Group, said:

“I have known and worked with the team at CFG for many years. Their focus on collaboration in often very complex cases makes them a stand-out player in our field of personal injury as do their standards of professionalism and client care. Our Working in Partnership programme is designed to create alliances between Frenkel Topping and fellow businesses in the PI and Clinical Negligence space who share the same ethos and a mutual drive to put the client first and our partnership with CFG is a perfect example of how it works to the client’s benefit.”

Richard Fraser, CEO of Frenkel Topping, said:

“As part of our strategy to grow our core business, Frenkel Topping Limited, we are formalising our relationships with high calibre firms who share our client-first mentality. Joint ventures like this one expand our network of new business referrers and demonstrate our commitment to innovate and enhance our services, ultimately supporting our objective to increase shareholder value.”

Richard Clark, CEO of CFG Law, said:

“We know from our experience that the impact of injury goes beyond the injured person and includes family and a range of organisations.

“We believe partnerships and working collaboratively with all those involved are vital in helping injured people to achieve their best possible outcomes.

“This latest partnership with Frenkel Topping takes that further. It cements our shared commitment to our clients to provide a consistently exceptional service and allows us to offer our clients a broader suite of services delivered with care, compassion and integrity.”

For further information:

About Frenkel Topping Group:  

The financial services firm consists of Frenkel Topping Limited, Ascencia Investment Management, Obiter Wealth Management, Equatas Accountants, Forth Associates, A & M Bacon Limited and Partners in Costs Limited.

The group of companies specialises in providing financial advice and asset protection services to clients at times of financial vulnerability, with particular expertise in the field of personal injury and clinical negligence.

With more than 30 years’ experience in the industry, Frenkel Topping has earned a reputation for commercial astuteness underpinned by a strong moral obligation to its clients, employees and wider society, with a continued focus on its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) impact.

Through its core business, Frenkel Topping Limited, the firm supports litigators pre-settlement in achieving maximum damages, by providing expert witness services, and post-settlement to achieve the best long-term financial outcomes for clients after injury. It boasts a client retention rate of 99%.

The Group’s discretionary fund manager, Ascencia, provides financial portfolios for clients in unique circumstances. In recent years Ascencia has diversified its portfolios to include a Sharia-law-compliant portfolio and a number of ESG portfolios in response to increased interest in socially responsible investing (SRI).

Obiter provides a generalist wealth management service – including advice on Savings and Investments; Tax planning; Life Insurance; Critical Illness and Income protection; Endowment advice and Keyman Insurance, with a particular specialism in financial advice on pensions and pension sharing orders for the clients of divorce and family lawyers. Obiter applies the same core principles of honesty, transparency, responsibility and reliability to individuals, regardless of background or situation.

In 2019, Frenkel Topping launched its accountancy arm, Equatas, to assist clients with tax planning and move closer to providing a full end-to-end service under the Group brand, improving the experience for clients and maintaining the Group’s standards throughout the client journey.

In 2020 Frenkel Topping acquired Forth Associates, a specialist forensic accounting services business which assists in financial and legal disputes. The acquisition makes Frenkel Topping the largest independent provider of financial expert witness reports to the claimant marketplace.

Earlier in 2021 Frenkel Topping acquired A & M Bacon Limited a leading costs specialist in local government and Court of Protection, and Partners in Costs Limited who specialise in civil litigation claims, including personal injury (ranging from catastrophic injury to clinical negligence), professional negligence, commercial claims and court of protection costs.

Later in 2021, costs consultants, Bidwell Henderson. joined the Frenkel Topping Group of businesses. One of the UK’s largest professional legal services companies specialising in both legal aid and inter partes law costs drafting, legal cashiering and costs training services, Bidwell Henderson are the go-to legal aid costs agency for drafting cost case plans where significant high-costs are involved in large scale and complex legal cases.

In January 2022, the Group acquired Cardinal Management Limited – a firm founded in 2015 by Andrew Pemberton who worked with St. George’s Hospital London to develop the Major Trauma Signposting Partnership service.  The company has now successfully implemented the MTSP at seven NHS Major Trauma Centres and has provided bedside support to more than 2,000 severely injured patients.

For more information visit: www.frenkeltoppinggroup.co.uk

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