Adam Investment, the discretionary management arm of Adam & Co, has streamlined its research function, in order to better capitalise on the strong growth it is seeing.
The group has promoted senior investment directors Anna Croze, Mark Ivory and Susan Boyd to executive director with responsibility respectively for research, the firm’s investment process and client relationships.
Adam Investment head, Dickson Anderson, told Portfolio Adviser that the firm is really finding its business starting to grow considerably and there was a need to reorganise its resources to ensure better scalability going forward. It is also taking on board some junior staff, all with the intention, he said of freeing up Croze, Ivory and Boyd to focus more on their executive duties within a structure that allows the firm to grow.
“It is about building for the future,” he said, “Like any other discretionary manager, we have had to go through the regulatory changes required by RDR, but unlike some of our peers who are still grappling with the changes, we did our suitability work 18 months ago.”
Part of the reason for their speed, is the firm’s structure and the make up of its client base, Anderson explained, adding that a parent like RBS and the technological muscle it provides helped as well.
But, he added, there was a need to modernise the research function a bit and ensure that, from a governance point of view, it operated day-to-day at the required level.
“The key thing now as a discretionary manager is making sure, from a regulatory point of view, the business is sound and that you are doing it for the right reasons, so you can sit in front of your clients and really say that you will be here for the long term; that the processes you have in place are being monitored properly and that the quality of the offering will not deteriorate over time.”
Part of a whole
Anderson was also clear to reiterate that the group will remain a stand alone entity that is part of a bigger growing whole.
“RBS has a new leader who is building on all the good work done already and is building the business for the future and we are part of that, the reviews have all been very good, we have a great platform to go forward from and we are finding that the enquiries that are coming through both internally and from the likes of charities are increasing week on week.
“The whole bank is moving forward and we are part of that process, the ability to combine banking, investment and financial planning is something people are putting value on,” he said.
Adding that the new structure also allows it to continue to further build on the three pillars in the future.
“As we go forward we can bring another client service team if we want, for example. It gives us a scalable business that we can continue to grow and I think these three promotions are rather telling about just how committed we are to the future,” Anderson added.
