Brewin Dolphin has announced chief executive David Nicol will retire from the business as its unveils less client money coming into its discretionary arm for Q4 2019 on par with rival Quilter.
Nicol (pictured), who has been Brewin’s top boss for the last seven years, will step down from his post on 14 June 2020, remaining with the group during a transitionary period until 29 July 2020.
He will be replaced by Robin Beer who currently oversees Brewin’s intermediaries, charity, professional services and digital businesses.
Nicol led a transformation of the business which saw funds under management almost double from £26.0bn to £48.5bn.
Brewin chairman Simon Miller thanked Nicol for his “outstanding contribution to Brewin Dolphin’s success,” in a statement accompanying the announcement.
“He has demonstrated great professionalism, re-focused the group’s strategy, improved the quality of the organisation and built a strong team,” Miller said. “Our client proposition has deepened, we have invested in our office network, and both client satisfaction and employee engagement are at record levels.”
Nicol added: “It has been a great privilege to lead Brewin Dolphin. After seven years as chief executive, and with the business well positioned for the future, I feel that now is the time for me to hand over to my successor.”
Brewin’s discretionary inflows shrivel
News of Nicol’s retirement came as the DFM unveiled muted flows during Q4 2019.
Money coming into Brewin’s discretionary business shrivelled to £100m over the three months to 31 December 2019. Flows from execution-only trades pushed total net inflows for the period to £200m.
Total assets at the wealth manager swelled by 7.8% to £48.5bn though this most of this growth came from £2.7bn of funds Brewin snatched from Investec’s Ireland domiciled business. Excluding acquired funds, assets rose by £800m or 1.8%.
Quilter CEO blames re-platforming for annual hit to flows
This was on par with Q4 flows into Quilter’s discretionary business.
Net client cash flows into its advice and wealth management arm, which includes Quilter Investors and Quilter Financial Planning, came in at £100m, taking total assets from £44.8bn to £45.8bn.
Total net inflows into the entire business came in at £500m which CEO Paul Feeney said was “a sharp turnaround” from Quilter’s performance over the first three quarters where it suffered £200m of net redemptions.
Quilter’s modest flows for the year of £300m were impacted by clients getting nervy ahead of its re-platforming, Feeney said.
He revealed that initial migration of customers onto the new platform is scheduled for the weekend of 22/23 February 2020.
