Tilney is in advanced discussions with an adviser platform to distribute its funds, one of several strategies for pushing further into the intermediary market.
Speaking to FTAdviser, head of Tilney for Intermediaries’ Miles Robinson said that following the move last month to make its managed portfolio service available on the Standard Life Wrap DFM Investment Hub, the firm was now keen to explore more platform tie-ups.
Following the merger this time last year of London-based advisory service Bestinvest and Deutsche Bank’s UK regional wealth management business Tilney, Mr Robinson was put in charge of building the brand amongst advisers.
“We took a long hard look at what we do, went out and spoke to our 250 firms and worked on firming up our investment solutions across fund of funds, model portfolios and bespoke,” he stated.
Just last month the discretionary manager appointed Mark Coles as financial director for intermediaries, moving from being head of business partnerships at Cofunds.
Mr Robinson said that he will support the Birmingham office, where around 40 per cent of the firm’s adviser business lies, while in the last few weeks John Alexander was poached from Momentum Global Investment Management to lead the Liverpool office, where much of the rest of the intermediary action is based.
“We will continue to make selective hires to support our adviser partners and also look at innovating our investment solutions,” said Mr Robinson, adding that there are obvious areas of the discretionary fund management space which can be better filled.
In November, Tilney signed contracts to ‘risk map’ its model portfolios with Distribution Technology and FinaMetrica, as it sought to facilitate new ‘agency model’ deals that put client suitability considerations back into the hands of introducing advisers.
The agency arrangement leaves more of the client relationship - with associated accountability and risk - in the hands of the adviser, who handles all client suitability assessments and selects an appropriate investment solution.
Tilney runs portfolios to specific risk mandates, focusing on management, custody and reporting, while the traditional ‘introducer model’ still sees the firm responsible for client relationship management and assessing suitability.
peter.walker@ft.com
