Why Aetas Wealth was founded
Aetas Wealth was established in 2022 by Matthew Steiner, who had spent two decades working across financial services and had developed a clear view of what good financial planning looked like — and how rarely it was delivered consistently.
The opportunity was specific: to build a practice where clients worked with the same adviser from the first conversation through the entirety of the relationship, where advice was genuinely independent across the whole market, and where the quality of thinking applied to each client’s situation was driven by deep specialist knowledge rather than generalist coverage.
That meant assembling a small team of exceptional advisers. Peter Rose APFS — a Chartered Financial Planner and Pensions Specialist with over 50 years of experience — and Daniel Cottam, a Financial Planner with over 20 years across personal financial planning — joined the practice and became its foundation.
The Lifetime to Legacy philosophy
Every Aetas Wealth client relationship is built around the Lifetime to Legacy framework. The name reflects something straightforward: the financial decisions that matter most to people are not isolated transactions. They span decades. They involve building assets, protecting income, preparing for retirement, managing tax, and ultimately passing wealth to the next generation.
Addressing each of these in isolation — without understanding how they connect — means missing the most valuable opportunities. A pension strategy that ignores estate planning leaves money on the table. An investment portfolio built without a cash flow model is built without a foundation. Estate planning that doesn’t account for the Finance Act 2026 pension changes is already out of date.
The Lifetime to Legacy philosophy asks: what does this client’s complete financial picture look like, and what decisions made today will compound most positively over the next ten, twenty or thirty years?
What makes Aetas Wealth different
Several things distinguish how Aetas Wealth works from how most financial planning practices operate.
The first is specialism. Peter Rose APFS has spent most of his career focused specifically on pension and retirement planning, and has become one of the leading voices on the Finance Act 2026 pension inheritance tax changes — the most significant reform to pension and estate planning in a generation. That depth of knowledge is not available at most generalist practices.
The second is continuity. Clients at Aetas Wealth do not get passed to a junior adviser, reassigned following a restructure, or handed to a call centre for their annual review. The adviser they meet in the first conversation is the adviser they work with indefinitely.
The third is independence. Aetas Wealth provides whole-of-market independent financial advice. No product panels, no house funds, no commercial relationships that distort recommendations. The advice is based on what is best for the client in their circumstances, assessed across everything available in the market.
The fourth is transparency. Fees are published. The regulatory relationship — Aetas Wealth operates as a trading style of Insight Financial Associates Limited, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under FRN 458421 — is stated on every page. The first conversation is free. There is no pressure and no obligation.
The regulatory relationship
Aetas Wealth is a trading style of Insight Financial Associates Limited — a long-established national firm authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA registration 458421, Companies House 05054886). Through this relationship, Aetas Wealth clients benefit from the infrastructure, compliance and support of a firm with over 50 advisers nationally and more than £4 billion in assets under advice.
This structure is common in the UK financial planning sector: a regulated parent entity operates under more than one trading name, each with its own proposition and market position, while the regulatory obligations and client protections sit with the authorised entity. When a client engages with Aetas Wealth, they are engaging with Insight Financial Associates Limited for the purposes of regulated advice.
The Aetas Group
Aetas Wealth sits within the broader Aetas Group, founded and led by Matthew Steiner. The Group operates across several connected areas:
- Aetas Wealth — independent financial planning for individuals, families and business owners.
- Aetas in the Workplace — the employee financial wellbeing programme for SME employers, at workplace.aetas-wealth.com.
- Aetas Partners — the broader advisory and group coordination entity, including professional introducer relationships with private client solicitors, accountants and corporate finance advisers.
The team
- Peter Rose APFS — Chartered Financial Planner and Pensions Specialist. Over 50 years’ experience. Leads pension and retirement planning, including the Finance Act 2026 IHT changes.
- Daniel Cottam — Financial Planner. Over 20 years’ experience. Personal financial planning, cash flow modelling, protection, investment and estate planning.
- Matthew Steiner — Founding Director. Strategy, commercial development, professional partnerships and the Aetas Group.
Offices
Aetas Wealth has offices in London and Norwich. Initial conversations are available by phone, video or in person.
- London: 13 Hanover Square, Mayfair, W1S 1HN
- Norwich: Insight House, 7a Alkmaar Way, Norwich International Business Park, NR6 6BF
Aetas Wealth is a trading style of Insight Financial Associates Limited, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 458421). Companies House 05054886. The value of investments can fall as well as rise. You may get back less than you invest. The FCA does not regulate Wills, Trusts or Tax advice.