Sequoia acquires outsourced paraplanning firm

Sequoia Financial Group has acquired the business assets of Australian outsourced paraplanning firm Clique Paraplanning.

In an ASX announcement on Friday, Sequoia said the purchase consideration consists of a combination of $150,000 cash and shares valued at $60,000.

Clique Paraplanning provides outsourced local paraplanning services to financial planners, AFSLs, and other intermediaries, with a focus on the creation of statements of advice documents, and the ongoing review of their documentation.

The firm has employees and contractors residing in Melbourne and Sydney.

“Clique has been an approved provider of our licensee services division for some time, following an assessment by our compliance team of the quality of its advice documentation,” Sequoia commented on Friday.

“We encourage advisers to outsource these services if they are high quality such as the Clique service.”

Sequoia’s first acquisition of 2024 follows a series of transactions that the firm made last year, having acquired and merged the businesses of Castle Corporate and Castle Legal in June.

Before the end of 2023, the firm had also acquired the business of one of its long-term providers of legal services, Australian Business Structures, for a cash consideration of $2 million.

This, Sequoia said, was a “milestone” event for the growth of its professional services division and the broadening of its product offering.

In November, Sequoia also announced plans to grow its adviser numbers within InterPrac and Sequoia Wealth Management to 500 by 2026, adding that it plans to acquire adviser licensing services from sub-scale AFSL providers.

The firm noted that only 40 of the 1,876 AFSL holders have more than 100 advisers, leaving a large cohort to target for acquisition. Looking at its FY24 target, Sequoia said it was aiming for 15 per cent growth in advisers numbers, which would take its total to 380 by the end of the financial year.