When Andrew Steel and James Hambro launched James Hambro & Partners in April 2010, the idea was to service the credible middle ground between highly client-focused firms with little in the way of institutional investment capability and the big private banks, where investment capability is strong but client engagement less so.
“We felt there was a real opportunity to combine the investment and intellectual capability already in JO Hambro Capital Management, and create alongside it a high-quality team of private client managers who were investment savvy in their own right.
They [would be able to] interpret those ideas for private clients,” CEO Andrew Steel explains.
During the past five years, the business has focused on delivering uncomplicated investment performance that investors understand and building an entirely client-focused investment team.
While Steel acknowledges the model is not 100% unique, it is an approach that has seen the firm grow assets under management to £1.7bn from a standing start.
He adds that it helps to have a brand that has a certain resonance among private clients.
Alternative relationships
Steel also highlights the lack of a relationship model as a differentiating factor.
The firm has a 10-strong investment team and, in looking after clients, they are not only responsible for the investment decisions, they are also who a client speaks to when he or she has a query about markets or about their portfolio.
“We have had a lot of debates with peers about the scalability of such a model; we think it definitely is.”
Indeed, Steel argues, while a lot of other firms have begun to turn away clients that are deemed to have insufficient assets to warrant a high-touch service, he believes the firm is capable of servicing smaller clients.
“There are two reasons for this: first, the people we have hired are able to service clients at a number of levels and, second, the systems we have in place and the team-based structure allows us to service clients in a much more flexible way,” he says.
According to Steel, the big challenge for a business like James Hambro & Partners, is ensuring it keeps pace at the same rate as firms with a much bigger IT budget.
“One benefit we do have is that we do not have huge legacy systems. From day one, we took the view that technology was going to be an important part of the process,” he says.
“We have to be smart with our money, so we have to be very focused on what technologies will matter to clients. It is a paperless office, for example, all our client records are stored and available online, which allows portfolio managers to respond much quicker to client demands.”
The select few
The company is also beginning to move into the adviser space and is looking at partnering with a number of platforms as well. However, it does not see itself operating for thousands of advisers across the country.
