Schroders head of multi-manager Marcus Brookes (pictured) has been named the CIO of its new wealth and financial planning business with Lloyds.
Brookes, who co-manages the FTSE 100 firm’s multi-manager range, joins previously announced appointees to the executive leadership team CEO James Rainbow and chairman Antonio Lorenzo.
Other additions to the executive team include Schroders global head of marketing James Cardew who has been roped in as chief marketing officer, while Sarah Deaves and Nick Allen join from Lloyds as managing director, client relationships and wealth advice and COO respectively.
Chelsea Financial Services managing director Darius McDermott said the fact Schroders is redeploying some of its most senior staffers, like Rainbow, Cardew and Brookes, is “absolute evidence” they are taking the joint venture with Lloyds “very seriously”. “That’s a very strong line-up”.
Schroders and Lloyds announced last October that they would be forming a financial planning business, with the goal of becoming one of the top three UK players in just five years. Lloyds has previously stated it plans to hire over 700 financial advisers to support the fledgling joint venture and nearly double Lloyds’ private client assets from £13bn to £25bn.
But last week the joint venture experienced a “serious setback” when an arbitration panel ruled in favour of Standard Life Aberdeen stating that Lloyds was not entitled to terminate a £100bn contract with the asset manager ahead of schedule.
The UK retail bank had yanked the contract that had initially been inked with Aberdeen Asset Management, arguing that it had become a material competitor following its merger with Standard Life. It announced it would be handing over £30bn to Blackrock and the remaining £80bn would be placed with Schroders.
‘The list is too strong to have been rushed’
McDermott said it is unlikely that SLA’s legal win will put a damper on the joint venture. “I don’t think the would be announcing this line up today if they weren’t cast iron certain this was going to happen,” he said.
Realistically he thinks Lloyds may have to hand over more money to SLA because of the arbitration ruling or pay an exit fee.
Similarly McDermott doesn’t see any significance in the timing of the executive leadership announcement, stating plans would have been well under way prior to the result of SLA’s legal challenge. “The list is too strong to have been rushed.”
Hargreaves Lansdown senior analyst Laith Khalaf agrees that the SLA ruling is likely to cause a short-term headache rather than a long-term issue.
He said: “I think Lloyds and Schroders will be pressing ahead with their plans while Lloyds negotiates with Standard Life Aberdeen over how many assets to release, and at what price. I suspect a fair chunk of the assets will come across to the JV, because Lloyds will want critical mass to be achieved quickly. Clearly the recent ruling in favour of Standard Life Aberdeen was a setback for the plans Lloyds and Schroders had formulated, and while Lloyds will have to stump up some cash in the short term, ultimately it won’t derail the business in the long term.”
Schroders Personal Wealth executive leadership team (subject to approval):
- James Rainbow, chief executive officer
- Nick Allen, chief operating officer
- Marcus Brookes, chief investment officer
- James Cardew, chief marketing officer
- Marietta Connery, head of human resources
- Sarah Deaves, managing director, client relationships & wealth advice
- Barrie Jackson, chief risk Officer
- David Lawrence, Chief Commercial officer
- Colin Newham, chief internal auditor
- Joel Ripley, chief financial officer
