A Hargreaves Lansdown investment analyst who was “heavily involved” in the research behind the now abandoned Wealth 50 has exited the business for a new role in Europe.
Jonathon Curtis will join GWM, previously known as Guardian Wealth Management, in September, becoming head of investment research. He will also join the investment committee of the financial planning firm.
The company said Curtis “cut his teeth at Hargreaves Lansdown, where he was heavily involved in their ‘Wealth 50’ recommended funds list”. Most recently, he oversaw investment analysis for the global sector.
Hargreaves Lansdown scrapped the Wealth 50 in May, having only rebranded and streamlined the number of funds in the buy list in January 2019. The D2C platform had come under fire for keeping the Woodford Equity Income fund in the Wealth 50 until its suspension.
At the time of suspension, 133,769 Hargreaves customers, who held the fund directly or via the multi-manager range, were blocked from pulling out their money.
Based in Geneva, Curtis will provide support to advisers across the GWM Group.
A GWM spokesperson said: “The investment committee, which comprises of senior management from various areas of the business and company directors, was set up to ensure that the range of wealth management solutions GWM offers to clients are, on an on-going basis; robust, capable of delivering investment returns over the longer term for an appropriate level of risk and represent value for money for clients both in terms of the management and administration of their investment portfolios.
“The committee takes the responsibility of portfolio building away from the individual adviser, liaises with discretionary fund management partners on a regular basis, determines and reviews the framework for due diligence of external investment managers and overseas the relationships with all external investment managers.”
Theodore Qi Shou, group chief investment officer, and Jabir Sardharwalla, group chief investment strategist, have also been appointed to the GWM investment committee.
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