Solicitors and independent financial advisers (IFAs) have entered into a nationwide tie-up in order to benefit from the relaxation of the rules on partnerships between lawyers and non-lawyers.

Some 600 law firm members of the 360 Legal Group will be given access to 1,700 IFA members of Positive Solutions, the UK’s largest IFA firm. The joint venture, dubbed the positive partnership initiative, has been set up to help solicitors and IFAs refer business to each other.

Members of the 360 Legal Group will be introduced to local Positive Solutions advisers, while Positive Solutions advisers will be able to download advice leaflets setting out where they can assist with private client work and commercial work.

Viv Williams, managing director of 360 Legal Group, said that the tie-up would provide a valuable revenue stream ahead of the full deregulation of legal services. ‘Our members will be [Positive Solutions’s] first port of call for advice whether it be on equity release, the need for a will, a remortgage, the break-up of a relationship or legal support for small business owners,’ he said.

Positive Solutions’s business development director Jonathan Morley said: ‘Close relationships with lawyers have been like the pursuit of the Holy Grail for financial advisers.’