Brooks Macdonald’s plan to cull staff as part of a streamlining plan comes as “no surprise” in difficult market conditions, according to a fund selector.
In an update on Thursday, Brooks announced its intention to cut 50 jobs, which it said will help the group respond to clients’ and advisers’ evolving needs and make it easier for advisers to do business with the firm.
The firm said it has identified a range of opportunities to streamline and remove duplication from core processes, for example by centralising client account opening and client reporting.
However, Ben Yearsley, director at Shore Financial Planning said: “I think that with markets down, fee income will be down and therefore costs across the industry will be under pressure, therefore no surprises to see redundancies and job losses.”
Administration and IT most affected
Brooks Macdonald said the changes will result in a material headcount reduction, predominantly in administration and IT areas.
Caroline Connellan (pictured), chief executive of Brooks Macdonald, said: “As part of the next phase of our strategy, as outlined at our annual results, we are focused on driving medium term margin improvement as well as making Brooks Macdonald easier to deal with for both clients and advisers. The changes we are announcing will make us more responsive to changing client and adviser needs and help deliver greater value from our future growth.
“We regret the need to make redundancies and those people who leave the business will do so with both our thanks for their contribution and our best wishes.”
The manager said it anticipates the changes to cost £3m, a one-off expense which it intends to exclude from its reported underlying profit. It expects an annualised cost reduction of £4m.
At the end of last year Brooks Macdonald managing director of UK investment management Nick Holmes left the firm after 22 years.
