2016 marks the second year of thewealthnet’s Top Investment Consultants, an initiative designed to recognise and celebrate the best in this field in the UK and Crown Dependencies. This year, a dozen firms made it into the final list, marking a steady increase from last year’s ten as more firms seek to make themselves known to thewealthnet’s professional audience. These consultancies have been selected because they were consistently cited as leaders by the professionals who work with them in the sector and through data collected by thewealthnet. We hope this community will grow and prosper in support of the wealth management industry and we look forward to hearing further recommendations for consultancies over the coming year.
Asset Risk Consultants
Established in 1995, Asset Risk Consultants (ARC) has 14 directors based in London, Guernsey, Jersey and Toronto, plus four further group directors and 35 staff in client-facing roles. Operating in small teams of three, with each trio typically responsible for between 15 and 20 clients, they advise on multi-asset solutions for private clients and charities and currently work with approximately 100 family groups and corporate entities and 40 intermediary organisations. In addition, it develops a suite of applications, including SAS Publisher, allowing users to generate factsheets analysing portfolios, funds and models versus benchmarks, selected peers, and sector groupings. Furthermore, the company offers outsourcing services, including performance analysis reports, and aggregation and attribution services, manager due diligence, and private client indices. The firm has direct responsibility for approximately $13 billion of investible assets but has oversight of over $100 billion of assets through its combined activities. Stephen McMahon is managing director of ARC in Jersey and also sits on the PAM Judging Panel as sub-committee chair.
bfinance
bfinance was founded in 1999 to help clients design their investment strategy and portfolio mix. Using proprietary models, the firm assists clients in assessing the levels and drivers of risk and return in their portfolio. These include Portfolio Risk Solutions, which helps test the potential benefits of any proposed changes, and analysis of manager level or holdings level data to identify hidden exposures, correlations or overlaps. The firm then uses this information to work with clients to test the effectiveness of their existing allocation, as well as the potential diversification benefits of any new asset classes. Well known for its attention to detail, the firm provides written reports of all projects and can also assist with administrative, contractual and fee discussions. Mathias Neidert is managing director and head of public markets investment advisory at bfinance.
Cambridge Associates
With nine offices worldwide, including five in North America, Cambridge Associates has been creating investment management portfolio strategies for private clients for over 40 years. Today the firm has almost 200 researchers and expertise of more than 30,000 global funds, enabling its investment team to help clients develop tax-aware strategies, plan for generational needs, and identify beneficial trust structures focuses. These can range from blue-chip stocks to small/mid caps. Cambridge Associates combines investment advisory with fiduciary services and can assist with the managing of assets for wealth preservation, estate planning, and intergenerational transition needs. These fiduciary services are provided by the company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Cambridge Associates Fiduciary Trust, LLC.
Chawker & Co
Chawker & Co was founded in 2011 by Edward Goodchild who describes the firm as the “time share version" of an independent family office, providing services to four core groups: those more senior in age, trustees, divorcees and widows. Mr Goodchild, the firm’s sole director and consultant, advises on cash, fixed income, equities, real estate, hedge funds, private equity, debt opportunities and, to a certain extent, foreign exchange and derivatives. He does so on a time over assets basis but currently advises on assets in excess of £800 million on behalf of approximately eight clients. Mr Goodchild comes from an investment management and private banking background. He spent ten years as an institutional money manager at F&C Investments, before entering the world of private banking and working with firms including Lombard Odier, UBS and Coutts. The firm aims to bridge the ‘divide’ between institutional asset managers and private clients.
Enhance Group
Established in 2005 with James Painter as chief executive, Enhance Group’s team of ten consultants and eight directors manage the assets of 160 clients across 12 jurisdictions. Mr Painter and his partners, Richard Sayers and Oliver Mourant, were amongst the earliest adopters of FinTech within wealth management, launching Enhance Group as a Jersey-grown FinTech business, offering investment reporting, wealth consultancy and also treasury services to corporate trustees, fund managers, charities and private clients across the world. This includes writing Investment Policy Statements (IPS), selecting suitable investment managers, monitoring portfolios and regularly appraising objectives. Mr Painter is a fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment. He has worked in the financial services sector for 20 years, starting with a data inputting role and progressing through to discretionary portfolio management before co-founding Enhance Group.
IAM Advisory
The brainchild of Michael Strachan, International Asset Monitor (IAM) was launched in 1987 to provide an “innovative, independent and comprehensive service suitable for anyone with direct or fiduciary responsibility for investments”. These clients range from high net worth individuals and families to family offices, trusts and pension plans to sovereign wealth funds. IAM Advisory’s team of four directors and ten consultants work on the basis of maximising investment returns, net of all costs, at an objectively set, and subsequently controlled, level of risk. The team also runs a service for professional trustees which provides advisory services across their entire client base. Mr Strachan’s experience in the Middle East, where he managed one of the largest sovereign wealth fund portfolios, was adopted and implemented at IAM, where their approach combines direct investment across major asset classes and segregated portfolios managed by leading external managers on specialist mandates.
JTFM
Working on behalf of UK-based and international clients, JTFM Consulting advises on tax efficient investing, multi-asset class portfolio management, formulating strategic asset allocation policies, direct stock, fund and product selection and structuring. The firm was founded by Richard Jennings and Chris Tottle in 2014, after working alongside each other at Schroders for nearly five years. Mr Tottle began his career as a portfolio manager & private banker at Schroders from 1997 to 2002, whilst Mr Jennings was an executive director of Schroder Investment Management and a director of their private bank Schroder & Co. Both ended up working at GAM and Triple Point Investment Management before founding JTFM.
KPMG
KPMG’s Investment Advisory Practice provides independent, strategic advice to institutional investors including pension funds, charities and family offices with respect to their overall investment portfolios. Its holistic advisory service includes journey planning, portfolio construction, investment manager research, implementation and monitoring. Employing seven directors and a team of more than 70 consultants, who are involved in both the research function and investment advisory, the firm currently advises on £35 billion worth of assets on behalf of 150 clients. The firm does not have any in-house investment products and is able to provide both one-off health checks for established investment portfolios as well as ongoing monitoring services.
LJ Athene Investment Advisors
LJ Athene Investment Advisors advises on $2.55 billion worth of assets on behalf of 26 clients, including a number of family groups. With a total of eight directors, five shareholder consultants and a wider research team, the firm provides advice on all liquid assets and funds including hedge funds and other alternative assets. It also provides guidance on real estate and farmland investments. The firm’s philosophy focuses on three key aspects: capital preservation, diversification and costs, with the aim of identifying a wide spread of assets whose running costs and be controlled and minimised. Stuart Davies is a partner at LJ Athene Investment Advisors and has over 20 years experience of providing investment advice and financial planning for wealthy families, individuals and trusts. He specialises in investment consulting and long term strategic financial planning.
Mercer
Mercer Investment Consulting was founded in 1975 and provides investment advisory services to corporate, institutional, foundations, trustees, and endowment client segment. The firm focuses on asset liability management, financial analysis and risk management, investment manager search and evaluation, and retirement plans. The firm also provides monitoring of strategy and investment management against objectives. Mercer’s client base mostly consists of large institutional investors, such as corporate pension plans, endowments and foundations. However, Mercer has recently seen a rise in financial services firms looking for advice to enhance their end-client investment propositions, particularly in Europe. Mr Andrew Kirton is head of consultancy in Europe, and has over 25 years of experience in the investment consulting industry.
PwC Investment
PwC Investment provides expert, impartial guidance on investment matters. Drawing on the resources of the PwC global network, they help clients determine suitable investment strategies; carry out investment manager selection exercises and undertake in-depth performance reporting on their investment portfolios. The business consists of a range of over 30 investment professionals, with experience in investment consulting, asset management, private banking, financial planning, accounting and audit. PwC Investment’s international client base include some of the world’s wealthiest individuals, trusts, family offices, companies and sovereign wealth funds. Most clients appoint PwC Investment on an ongoing basis, but the team will deliver standalone projects where requested. Marcus Porter is a director in PwC and leads its Investment Consulting services to private investors.
Stamford Associates
Stamford Associates is an independent global investment consultancy firm based in Old Bond Street, London, working closely with a number of institutional clients as well as St James’ Place Wealth Management. Set up in 1980 to provide clients with “insightful and successful” investment advice, the firm applies a proprietary evidence-based manager evaluation and manager monitoring process, with the aim of creating a holistic view of individual managers. This includes conducting 100 reports, 300 analytical checkpoints and individual meetings to ensure throughout understanding of each manager and their processes. Having built up a knowledge base over more than 30 years, today the firm holds proprietary information on over 5,000 managers.
