Charles Russell and Speechly Bircham have voted to merge.

In February RoF broke the news that the pair were in talks. This week the polls opened and at least 75% of both partnerships, the required threshold, voted to take the plunge. Sadly the new firm will not be called Rustling Birch or Bircham Russell, but Charles Russell Speechly.

  An opportunity lost

Speechly's proposed tie-up with Withers collapsed last year at the last moment. This time around the firm held regular meetings with its partners to ensure that they remained aware of the many beneftis of voting yes. And, unlike Withers, Charles Russell also managed to stay the course.

It seems like a good fit. CRS, which will go live on 1 November, will have 170 partners and a fee income of about £135 million, and last year the difference in average equity partner pay between the two firms was only around £10k.

It will also be the largest private client firm in the UK by a considerable margin. Charles Russell’s managing partner Christopher Page said, “One of the many things we share with Speechly Bircham is our reading of private wealth in the fullest sense of that term. The beauty of the new combination is that it gives us real scale”. Farrers will be delighted.
Tip Off ROF