The quiet evolution. JM Finn s CEO on offering the right service to the right clients WEALTH MANAGER CIT YWIR E. C O.U K / W M

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1 WEALTH MANAGER CIT YWIR E. C O.U K / W M I S S UE DECEM BER The quiet evolution s CEO on offering the right service to the right clients

2 22 The quiet evolution s CEO on offering the right service to the right clients JAMES PHILLIPPS jphillipps@citywire.co.uk s new thumbprint security feature on its wealth app is part of a quiet evolution at the company, designed to future-proof the business. It has been a busy two years for Steven Sussman, who took over as CEO in A veteran of 20 years, since taking the top job he has expanded both its product suite and the range of services it offers clients in what has been a gentle overhaul of the company, which has roots dating back to 1945.

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4 24 A rebranding has also been quietly CV Murdock from UBS as head of wealth taking place this year as gears planning in late With the hire of up for Mifid II and beyond. chartered financial planner Simon The rebrand is very exciting for us as we re one of those firms under the radar. STEVEN SUSSMAN was we that wanted it to be a statement of the new and a broadening of our offering. It s evolution, not revolution, present CEO, where they can store their statements and contract notes so all of their continue to grow over the coming years. We wanted to provide an additional bolting on another source of revenue, We are proud of our technology and client portal, but also our client library four-strong, but Sussman says this will service to our clients. It s not about just Sussman says. have invested heavily in it not just our year and the addition of a paraplanner and an assistant, the team is now We dropped the & Co from our name, which reflects our evolution. The feeling Wong from Chase de Vere the following Managing director, but about delivering outcomes, helping clients with their inheritance tax (IHT) and estate planning, he says. We will grow the team; within a paperwork is available we think it is a five-year period, we will budget to have very valuable service. a financial planner in each [of our five The company has also put considerable effort into being Mifid II-ready ahead of the regulation coming into force in the new year, in what has Managing partner, help ensure it is on track. Sussman admits that, like most companies, JM Finn is reliant on third party system Some say we came late to the party, but it s about what service we can give investment manager will mention The wealth manager carried out its brought in Deloitte as consultants to the team in London. clients, not what we can sell them. The been an 18-month project. own transaction review a year ago and offices] and probably double the size of Group finance director, Granville whether they require financial planning to clients and if they want to talk about say estate planning. Sometimes they bring them in for a chat. He adds: It was never developed to development to an extent, but come be a massive profit stream in its own January he is confident the firm will be right, it was developed as a support fully prepared, saying companies need and is important in the modern world. to treat the exercise as a positive, rather There is a lot of work on pension than sitting on their hands complaining consolidation and Sipps have been a about the workload. big driver there. We ve been doing Mifid II preparation The advice proposition is an addition for 18 months and carried out our own to s traditional wealth transaction review a year ago. There management services, which have also have been a lot of system tests over the been broadened under Sussman s last few months. We will meet the tenure. requirements to the best of our abilities The firm launched a managed and treat it as a positive the regulation portfolio service (MPS) last year, will deter market abuse and increase headed by intermediary solutions transparency, he says. director Michael Mount, targeted at the You need to embrace regulation. It intermediary market. This sits alongside does take a huge amount of its existing tailored platform solution management time, but we are moving to (TPS), which as the name suggests, is a an era of data protection, Mifid II and bespoke proposition, which advisers constant reviews. The industry has to be can tailor to meet their clients up to speed with it and we ve seen it as individual objectives and risk profiles. a very important part of the business, Beneath this it also has an offering for and part of our evolution. smaller clients, Coleman Street Part of this evolution under his tenure has also been the broadening of the Investments. TPS is a differentiator, MPS is a proposition to include financial market product. With TPS, the IFA planning. The company hired Anna chooses the asset allocation, the risk

5 25 profile and it is risk-mapped. The MPS is much more standard, he says. We also offer intermediaries a unitised IHT portfolio, so we have the full gamut of services. It s a very specialised service, so we insist clients take advice either through our financial planners or their own. With a refreshed brand and full suite of services, Sussman says is ready to fly out from under the radar, saying it is time to feed the engine. But as has been in keeping with the company s history, this will be done at a measured pace. The firm now has 9 billion in assets under management and advice, with client sizes ranging from 100,000 to 30 million. He says that organic growth has been the key driver. However, that is not to say that acquisitions are off the cards, as Sussman is keen to stress the attractiveness of the company as a parent, given its stability, being 80% owned by Belgian firm Delen, with no borrowings or fixed debt. We don t really advertise as such our clients are our biggest source of referrals. We set about organic growth it may be slow, but it is sure, strong growth. The secondary growth path is attracting high quality investment managers and the third is the acquisition of another firm, he says. We haven t done that yet and we d need to be comfortable with it. If there was an opportunity to take an established office in say Manchester, we d look at it. We don t just look at a region and say we need to be there though. The market is in a state of flux. People are talking constantly they talk to us and we talk to them. We are very picky though. The concept is to improve and be a highly successful quality business. We are not a pile them high firm. The art of client management Operating profit rose 6.2% to 8.6 million Over 12 months to the end of December 2016 has sponsored the Royal Academy of Arts since 2012 with chief executive Steven Sussman describing the tie-up as a great way of interacting with clients as well as attracting new ones. For us it s the right association and for our clients it s what they want, he says. We did a client survey in 2015, asking them what they like. The main things that came through were art, food and gardening. Of course, people like sports but not as much as they used to. also hosted an in-house exhibition with the Royal Academy this year, where up-and-coming artists displayed their work in the wealth manager s office. Clients were invited along and could buy it to help fund the artists degrees. The Royal Academy s summer exhibition has become a big fixture on the wealth manager s calendar with 700 guests attending this year. When we first did the summer exhibition we were going to invite 400 clients, but it went up to 700 and we found that having a larger event had a big impact- people saw people they knew there who they didn t know were clients and there was a real buzz, he says. The client experience is not just about being a client and being able to meet the investment managers and come to our events and speak to them, but being part of the family we feel this is a differentiator. Revenue up 3.5% to 58.3 million Over 12 months to the end of December 2016