”However, Kenny adds: “We see a shift coming in the next few years in wealth creation from emerging market economies back towards developed markets, which will likely continue to benefit from low oil prices and low interest rates.”
Indeed, the wealth creation seen in emerging markets in the past decade is one of the areas Smith & Williamson is focusing on in terms of client growth. Offshore mandates are one of three areas of focus. The other two are ultra high net-worth market, both at home and abroad, and the growing outsourced IFA market.
Kenny says the firm has tended not to be keen on dramatic adjustments, but the industry is undergoing considerable change. In the ultra-high net-worth space there remains a lot of opportunity, and the firm has announced it is seeking to recruit someone to head up its family offices division. At the other end of the spectrum, the model portfolio space is the third area of focus for the group. Admitting it might be late to the party, Kenny says the firm has model portfolios that now have a three-year track record.
“The fundamental changes to the ways in which the wealthy in the UK are saving for their pensions mean that the rise in IFAs outsourcing investment management is and will be one of the bigger growth drivers in the industry. It is a crowded space but we have something to add to it,” he says.
