LONDON, UK: Frenkel Topping 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.”