A look back at the most popular stories on thewealthnet last week....
10.
Schroders Family Office Service is set to sponsor the family office conference hosted by the London Business School Institute of Entrepreneurship and Private Capital for the second year running.
The conference, taking place in London on 20-21 February 2024, is reserved for family members, principals of single-family offices, and senior family office leadership.
It is designed to provide a platform for networking, collaboration and knowledge sharing within the family office community.
9.
Wealth management and financial services firm Team acquired Homebuyer Financial Services Limited (HBFS), a Jersey-based financial planning business, for £2.4 million.
Founded in 1988, HBFS has assets under advice (AUA) of approximately £135 million with over 1,000 clients serviced by 10 full time employees.
In the year ended 31 January 2023, HBFS generated revenues of around £1.3 million with a pre-tax loss of £15,000.
Thornton has audited gross assets of £838,000.
8.
The founder and managing director of SG Wealth Management Stephen Girling passed away at his home in Norwich.
The firm said the married father of three was taken ill last month and died peacefully, surrounded by his family.
Having started in financial services in 1978, Mr Girling went on to jointly launch the East Anglian SG Wealth Management (SGWM) in 2001. Mr Girling engaged in charitable and community activities throughout the region.
7.
Asset Risk Consultants (ARC) published its private client indices (PCI) estimates for the full year 2023.
Portfolios in the most cautious band (risk relative to equities of 0-40 percent) recorded estimated gains of 4.4 percent on average, compared with 2022’s losses of 7.6 percent.
Those portfolios in the balanced asset band recorded higher average gains of 6.0 percent in 2023, compared with losses of 9.1 percent in 2022. [Read more]
6.
High profile cases of celebrity parents cutting their children out of their Wills may make the headlines, but according to those on the front lines of philanthropy there are other, much less acrimonious, giving trends at play right now, Laura Miller writes.
Concerned philanthropists have always looked at the world around them and sought to help solve the most pressing causes of the day. Climate change and biodiversity loss, the vanguard of current existential crises, are what are attracting their attention right now.
“For the past three years we have seen an increased interest in the preservation of biodiversity amongst our clients, mostly young people and entrepreneurs,” says Nathalie Sauvanet, head of individual philanthropy at BNP Paribas Wealth Management, with the fight against social inequalities the other cause most often chosen by these groups.
5.
The chief investment officer (CIO) of Brooks Macdonald - Edward Park - resigned.
Brooks Macdonald confirmed Mr Park will leave the firm later this year after a handover period.
Mr Park has been with the firm since graduating in 2009, joining as a trainee investment manager. He since rose through the ranks, becoming CIO in 2020.
4.
Wealth manager Evelyn Partners appointed Lauren Glaister as a partner in its Leeds investment management team.
Ms Glaister joined from LGT Wealth Management’s discretionary fund management business - previously part of abrdn - where she spent three years and was a senior investment manager.
Prior to LGT and abrdn, Ms Glaister worked for Tilney Investment Management - now Evelyn Partners - and Redmayne-Bentley.
She specialises in managing investments for private clients and is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.
3.
London-based Hay Hill Wealth Management strengthened its board by appointing Martin Baines and Dr Timothy Grasby as directors, Ian Orton reports.
Mr Baines, a managing partner of Birmingham-based Heligan Wealth Management, is a former chief executive of Quilter and Quilter Cheviot Investment Management.
Dr Grasby is the founder of the Heligan Group, a Birmingham-based investment and advisory group, of which Heligan Wealth Management is a component part.
2.
The good news is that the “average” UK private client portfolio should have generated a positive return during 2023, according to the latest data released by Guernsey-based Asset Risk Consultants (ARC), Ian Orton writes.
All four of its sterling denominated private client indices (PCIs) generated positive nominal returns for the year, according to ARC's preliminary estimates.
The returns ranged from the 4.4 percent posted by ARC Sterling Cautious PCI, which has a relative risk of between 0 and 40 percent of the world equity market to the 8.2 percent returned by the ARC Sterling Equity Risk PCI, which has a relative risk of 90 percent to 100 percent of world equity markets.
This is a significant improvement on the 2022 result. Here, all four ARC PCIs posted negative returns ranging from the -7.6 percent recorded by the ARC Sterling Cautious PCI to the -11.4 percent posted by the ARC Sterling Equity Risk PCI.
Nonetheless, a number of caveats have to be applied.
1.
Revenues and profits both fell for the year to 31 March 2023 at Stonehage Fleming (UK), a UK subsidiary of Jersey-based Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Limited, according to its latest annual report and accounts which have just been deposited at Companies House, Ian Orton writes.
Revenues came in at £49.60 million, £3.10 million or 5.88 percent lower than the £52.69 million reported a year earlier.
With operating expenses growing by £2.78 million from £41.65 million to £44.43 million, a 6.68 percent increase, this had a predictable effect on profits.