Mortgage Advice Bureau has acquired a 75% stake in Auxilium Partnership, a specialist protection provider aimed at directly authorised firms, for an undisclosed fee.    

The broker firm says the move will “benefit the forward-thinking and ambitious directly authorised firms” by offering greater productivity, higher penetration and better customer outcomes.  

It adds that the tie-up with Auxilium is part of its Consumer Duty strategy of “ensuring advisers always act in the best interests of their clients by avoiding foreseeable harm”.  

Auxilium, founded in 2018, will continue to be led by chief executive Mark Graves, who retains a 25% slice of the business.   

Aim-listed Mortgage Advice Bureau was co-founded in 2,000 by chief executive Peter Brodnicki and comprises over 1,400 advisers.  

Mortgage Advice Bureau chief executive Peter Brodnicki says: “With consumer duty at the forefront of everyone’s minds, it is critical to partner with firms that are focused on consumer outcomes to help them avoid foreseeable financial harm.   

“I believe the time is right to read across from Mortgage Advice Bureau all the protection lessons learned to help the wider directly authorised community, and the partnership with Auxilium gives us the ideal platform to achieve this.”  

Auxilium chief executive Mark Graves adds: “We are delighted to have partnered with Mortgage Advice Bureau, who bring specialist resources and skills to Auxilium that will enable us to strengthen our proposition further and help more directly authorised firms than ever before.”