Toogood, the firm’s investment services director resigned early last week and the handover of his responsibilities is already complete. Hutchison, head of investment consultancy, is currently in the process of her handover.
The firm is also looking at how to allocate their roles and responsibilities though the official line is that the consulting and analyst team, run by Daniel Needham as global chief investment officer and managing director of the European consulting business, are handling all existing clients’ needs. Needham confirmed he will “be announcing their replacements in due course”.
Their exit means the senior management team from OBSR bought by Morningstar back in 2010 have now left, given the announcement in October 2012 that Richard Romer-Lee, managing director of Morningstar’s investment consulting operations in Europe, and Nigel Whittingham, managing director of Morningstar OBSR in the UK and Ireland, were to leave.
Do you think the OBSR brand will now be dropped?
While understandably unable to confirm or deny too much at this stage, Toogood was at pains to say his departure from Morningstar was amicable, and “appropriate and correct” in the way it was handled.
“There were no black sacks by my desk,” he said.
He added there are other things he would like to do and, having never worked for a big company in his life, felt the time was right to leave to try something new.
Exactly what this is he cannot say just yet, but it is likely to involve him and Hutchison working together once again and, given their expertise and the changing investment landscape, it is not too much of a stretch to see them helping advisers design their investment proposition.
“Advisers are asking questions like ‘Is my product range right?’, ‘Have I got the right funds?’," he added, before saying whatever he does next “is not too far away”.
