According to Mike Coady, managing director of deVere United Kingdom, the firm had already seen a significant growth in enquiries from prospective clients across 2015, and he expected this trajectory to continue.
Mitch Hopkinson, who has been promoted from head of East Midlands to head of advice, will lead the new high net worth division.
The division will cater for the needs of the UK’s most affluent clients who will typically have more than £1m of investable assets.
Mr Coady said: “Throughout 2015 we have continued to attract so many high net worth clients, it is a natural progression to create a division to serve their often unique and specialist financial planning and wealth management needs.”
He added that deVere United Kingdom and its standalone brands were forecast to further raise standards and improve efficiencies, while aiming to do half as much business again as it did in 2015 - which was a record-breaking year for the company, in part driven by the the new pension freedoms.
| People Changes: |
Kevin White, former head of UK financial planning, becomes head of distribution Lee Grimshaw, former senior paraplanner, becomes head of proposition Chris Barry, head of the pension review team becomes head of retirement Mitch Hopkinson, former head of East Midlands, becomes head of advice |
He said: “Clients continue to demand more from us across our brands - deVere United Kingdom and deVere Mortgages – and we are up for the challenge. We expect to be able to satisfy this appetite for our service by achieving at least 50 per cent increase in our business in Britain over the next 12 months.”
“deVere Mortgages has experienced a month-on-month increase in enquiries since it was launched as a standalone brand in January 2015, with a considerable surge in the last quarter. More than 70 per cent of all enquiries come from foreign nationals or British nationals living and working abroad. The overwhelming majority of these individuals, approximately 60 per cent, currently reside in Switzerland, UAE, Qatar and the Far East.
“We expect this trend to continue, and will focus on developing to cover other important international centres which have high numbers of UK expats.”
To help cater for the anticipated rise in demand, deVere UK has pledged to take on more graduates from the deVere graduate programme and recruited additional staff, including a senior paraplanner, Peter Cook, who has four decades of experience. This appointment brings deVere United Kingdom’s total number of Fellows of the Chartered Insurance Institute to four.
Background
In September 2015, Mr Coady told Financial Adviser it would push ahead with plans to grow its UK market presence.
The results of deVere’s UK division, released on 26 August 2015, showed a 51 per cent year-to-date revenue increase compared with the same period in 2014, when it was at 33 per cent.
In January 2015, deVere Group unveiled a standalone brand focusing on mortgages after seeing increased demand from ex-patriates.
