Howden Ireland has agreed to acquire Opes Private Clients Limited, trading as Opes Wealth Trust, a Dublin-based financial planning firm specialising in retirement and investment advice for self-employed individuals, business owners and private clients.
The deal is subject to regulatory approval from the Central Bank of Ireland.
The acquisition is Howden Ireland's second in quick succession, following the purchase of Galway-based Maven Financial Planning in April 2026, and forms part of a stated strategy to build a scaled financial advisory platform across the country.
Founded by Cathal McCabe, Opes Wealth Trust will see its team of experienced advisers join Howden Ireland, continuing to serve their existing client base.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Dermot Gaskin, managing director of Financial Advisory at Howden Ireland, said the deal strengthens a proposition the firm has been building at pace.
"Opes Wealth Trust is an exceptionally well-established business in Dublin, offering services that align with and strengthen our goal to create a scaled, market-leading financial advisory platform in Ireland," he said. "The longevity of their client relationships reflects our own commitment to putting customers at the centre of everything we do."
Meanwhile, McCabe said the move would open up new resources for clients.
"This partnership brings together shared values, experience and expertise, and we are confident it will create significant benefits for our clients and our team alike," he said. "Through enhanced resources and broader capabilities, we look forward to continuing to deliver the high standard of service and trusted advice our clients expect."
The Opes acquisition is the latest chapter in an Irish expansion that has been running for the better part of a decade.
Howden Ireland entered the country through acquisition in 2019 under the Aston Lark name and has since completed more than 33 transactions, establishing itself as one of the five largest general insurance brokers in the Irish market, with approximately €300 million of gross written premiums annually and the country's largest mortgage intermediary operation.
The current wave of activity is focused squarely on financial advisory, reflecting the group's assessment that integrated advice is increasingly what business owners and private clients are seeking from a single provider. Howden Ireland's Financial Advisory team, launched last year under Gaskin, already has more than 80 professionals serving clients nationwide.
The deals sit within a broader structural shift under way across Ireland's intermediary sector. The independent financial adviser and wealth management space is among those experiencing the most pronounced consolidation, driven by a combination of UK private equity-backed platforms and domestic consolidators building scale through acquisitions. According to FTI Consulting, strategic buyers are increasingly focused on targeted deals for specialist brokers that offer scalable benefits across portfolios alongside geographic and product-line diversification.
Howden itself is one of the industry's most acquisitive operators globally. The group reported £3.01 billion in gross revenue for the fiscal year ended September 2024, completing 65 acquisitions in the period, a rise in brokerage revenue of more than 26% on the prior year.
MarshBerry recorded 268 announced M&A transactions involving European insurance brokers in the first half of 2025 alone, with private equity-backed buyers accounting for over 60% of all deal activity across the continent.
The emergence of a scaled advisory group with national reach and an active acquisition pipeline carries clear distribution implications. A platform combining general insurance broking, mortgage intermediary services and financial planning under a single brand is a materially different commercial proposition from the fragmented independent adviser market it is gradually replacing.
The target client profile - self-employed professionals, business owners and private clients - is also among the most commercially valuable in the market. These are clients with complex, multi-policy needs spanning protection, key-person cover, executive benefits, succession planning and retirement. Winning or retaining distribution relationships with a group of Howden's scale and trajectory is a different conversation from managing a panel of small independents.
The Irish financial services sector continues to undergo significant structural change, with M&A activity cutting across every subset of the industry as the consolidation trend shows little sign of abating.
Gaskin has described the firm's growth plans as "ambitious", underpinned by a pipeline of "transformative acquisitions" for 2026 and beyond, indicating that neither Maven nor Opes represents the ceiling of Howden Ireland's ambitions.
