Schroders nears sale of its financial planning arm Benchmark Capital

Schroders looks set to sell its financial planning arm, Benchmark Capital, in a deal reportedly worth more than £200 million, according to the Financial Times.

The move is the latest step in the asset manager's push to concentrate on ultra-high-net-worth clients rather than the broader "mass affluent" market that Benchmark serves.

Who's buying Benchmark Capital, and why?

The FT reports that Schroders is close to agreeing a deal with Söderberg & Partners, a Sweden-based advice firm backed by private equity houses KKR and TA Associates.

Söderberg is said to have beaten rival bidder The Openwork Partnership to the deal.

Other reports have also named private equity firms Hg, TowerBrook, Vitruvian Partners and Aquiline Capital as having shown interest in Benchmark at various points during the sale process, which has been run by investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners.

Benchmark provides financial planning, technology and compliance support to more than 1,000 UK financial advisers, and oversees over to £38 billion in assets under management.

Benchmark is a substantial business, but not the kind of client base Schroders wants to prioritise going forward.

Under chief executive Richard Oldfield, Schroders has been trimming parts of its business that serve everyday savers and investors, in favour of clients with millions of pounds to invest, such as those served by Cazenove Capital and its international wealth arm.

The Benchmark sale would follow Schroders' exit from Schroders Personal Wealth, its former joint venture with Lloyds Banking Group, which wound down last October.

Part of a bigger reshuffle

This all comes in the wake of Schroders' £9.9 billion takeover by US asset manager Nuveen, approved by shareholders in April 2026.

That deal creates a combined group with nearly $2.5 trillion in assets under management.

Notably, Nuveen and Schroders have said Cazenove itself will be retained as part of the enlarged group's growth plans, despite earlier speculation that it too could be sold off.

The wider picture is one of consolidation. Traditional asset managers are under pressure from high running costs, outflows from actively managed funds, and competition from low-cost index trackers, and many are responding by sharpening their focus on fewer, wealthier clients.

What it means if you use a Benchmark-linked adviser

If your financial adviser operates under the Benchmark Capital network, a change of ownership shouldn't affect your existing pension, investments or financial plan directly.

Regulatory protections and your adviser's duty to act in your best interests remain in place regardless of who owns the network behind them.

That said, corporate ownership changes are exactly the moment to ask a few sensible questions:

• Will your adviser's regulatory permissions, fees or investment proposition change under new ownership?

• Is your adviser firm's Financial Conduct Authority registration affected by the transaction?

• Are you still being served by the same named adviser, or has your account been reassigned?

More broadly, this deal is a reminder of a trend playing out across UK wealth management: as larger firms increasingly chase high-net-worth clients, everyday savers may find it worth checking whether their current adviser network still fits their needs, or whether an independent, FCA-regulated adviser matched to their specific circumstances might serve them better.

Unbiased can match you with an FCA-regulated financial adviser to review your existing arrangements, whoever currently looks after your investments.