"They are investing all over other sectors, and you get much greater breadth of knowledge."
The family office currently holds 9 per cent of the equity of the business, and Moles has since turned to private equity for further assistance, so that professional investors now own 60 per cent of the company.
As a consequence, however, he has been able to buy firms to help him build his model – the latest being Balmoral Asset Management, the fourth purchase this year – so that now he has 150 advisers: 98 financial planners and students at his academy, and the rest are lawyers and accountants.
Not surprisingly, the lawyers were a reluctant lot when it came to believing in Moles' dream: "They are super cautious and are attached to a profession steeped in 350 years of history. We had to have a solid business plan and we had to put the right amount of capital in to prove we could last the journey.
"But once one comes, everyone comes; it was about getting the right people to join the team."
Ongoing advice
Progeny now has £7bn of assets under management and 7,000 clients – a strong position compared to the £100mn of AUM in 2016. No doubt in part due to his acquisitions, but it is also helped by appealing to a wealthier client. His average client has just over £750,000 of investable assets – people he considers need ongoing advice.
Moles says: "If you've got £75,000 in your Isa... you need ongoing advice. We choose to operate at the wealthier end of the market."
He has recently appointed a former M&A director of KPMG as his head of corporate development, and is on the look out for more acquisitions.
"We're not a consolidator. You have to be a chartered financial planning business with clients that need our services, and we can't buy businesses where [all the advisers] want to retire – that's someone else's game."
"If you look at our last acquisitions – The Fry Group and Balmoral Asset Management – that demonstrates that what we're doing is working and people will join us."
Clearly Moles has ambitions yet. He began his life in financial services at Skipton Building Society, starting out as the then equivalent of a paraplanner, before going on to a more customer-facing role. He joined Lawrence Scoffield from there, becoming managing director, from where he led the MBO.
Clearly he has experience of doing deals, and building businesses – what has he learnt about making it happen?
