Counting down the top stories from thewealthnet last week...
10.
UK inflation continued its downward trajectory coming in at 3.2 percent in March. This is a decrease from the 3.4 percent reported in February but slightly higher than consensus expectations of 3.1 percent.
Lindsay James, an investment strategist at Quilter Investors, suggested this data “leaves [interest] rate cuts on the table in the near term”.
However, any rate cuts are likely to be modest. [Read more here from Katie Royals]
9.
The chief investment officer (CIO) for Citi Wealth, David Bailin, will leave the firm on 15 May after 15 years to "pursue a new opportunity", according to an internal memo seen by thewealthnet.
This "new opportunity" has not yet been announced.
Mr Bailin joined Citi in 2009 as global head of managed investments, charged with rebuilding Citi's investment solutions capabilities.
8.
Multi family office Stonehage Fleming appointed Carolyn Bell as a partner within Stonehage Fleming Investment Management (SFIM).
With over 15 years’ industry experience, Ms Bell has joined Stonehage Fleming from Aegon Asset Management where she was an investment manager for the Aegon US equity pension fund.
She was also co-manager of the Aegon technology pension fund, and support manager for the Aegon global equity market neutral fund. Prior to Aegon Asset Management, Ms Bell spent five years as an investment analyst at Bailie Gifford.
7.
Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, has yet to emerge as a significant entrepreneur with him now being a non-working member of the Royal Family.
But he has a toehold in the UK corporate sector in the form of Travalyst Ltd, a London-based company limited by guarantee.
Travalyst aims “to promote the global awareness of the importance of sustainable tourism by aligning the world’s leading travel bands on how to report sustainability across their platforms in ways that help make consumers make better decisions.” [Read more here from Ian Orton]
6.
EFG Harris Allday appointed Anne Brookes and Clive Batchelor as client relationship officers and Gordon Campbell and Peter Meckiff as portfolio managers.
Ms Brookes and Mr Batchelor joined EFG Harris Allday from Brown Shipley where they both served as directors in private banking for over 12 years.
Prior to this, Ms Brookes and Mr Batchelor both worked at Coutts, as a senior client partner and a private banker, respectively.
5.
Vermeer Partners appointed Rob Hodgson as a financial planning director within Vermeer Financial Planning.
In this role he will work alongside Chris Hogarth, managing director, Rebecca Chinn senior paraplanner and Audra Cowgill, a financial planning administrator.
Mr Hodgson has over 15 years’ experience and has joined Vermeer from Cazenove Capital where he was a wealth planning director.
4.
Wealth manager Sarasin & Partners promoted Subitha Subramaniam to head of investment strategy.
Prior to joining Sarasin & Partners, Ms Subramaniam worked at UBS in Zurich as a senior economist for Asia in global markets research and then as a macroeconomist for Asia in Sovereign Research.
She was a project director at the Center for Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector, Washington DC, USA. She also worked as a research assistant at the World Bank’s Middle East Department.
3.
Well meaning rules and regulations designed to protect customers often have a habit of generating unintended consequences.
Take the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Consumer Duty regulations, for example.
At first sight, these would appear to make a considerable contribution to ridding the UK’s retail financial services sector of many of the egregious features that have characterised it over the years, especially as far as costs and pricing are concerned. [Read more from Ian Orton here]
2.
For most wealth managers their experience of gaming is playing Candy Crush on the train home or perhaps debating with their children over how long they have been playing Fortnite. Little do they know that, through this, they are contributing to an industry worth over £250 billion globally.
However, one wealth manager decided to capitalise on the gaming sector and is aiming to become the go-to bank for the industry.
Coutts has been interested in gaming since 2015, after realising the opportunities and the fact that no one else appeared to be focusing on it, Paul Franks, interactive entertainment lead at the private bank, told thewealthnet. [Read more here from Katie Royals]
1.
Data from PAM, part of thewealthnet's publisher PAM Insight, revealed who the 20 largest private asset managers are by assets under management (AUM).
The most recently available data, which is accurate as at 31 December 2023, found the largest manager once again - St James's Place Wealth Management - had over £168 billion AUM. This was over £76 billion greater than the second place manager - Rathbones Group, which combined with Investec Wealth & Investment UK during 2023 - with £92.7 billion in AUM.
Barclays came in third place with £73.62 billion.