QuilterOct 23 2019

Quilter assets hit by investment manager departures

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Quilter assets hit by investment manager departures

Quilter has reported last year's departure of a team of investment managers saw another £600m leave the business in client money in the third quarter of this year, brining the total outflows to £1.4bn for 2019 so far. 

In a trading update published today (October 23) the wealth manager announced net client cash outflows of £500m for the three months to September, which it said was driven by outflows of £600m in the quarter from investment manager departures within Quilter Cheviot last year. 

It brings the total value of client money leaving the business as a result of the departures to £1.4bn so far this year, alongside the loss of a quasi-institutional mandate, which contributed to overall net client cash outflows in the three quarters to September of £200m.

Chief executive Paul Feeney said: "As indicated earlier this year, we expected this year to be challenging for net client cash flows, reflecting an uncertain political and economic backdrop coupled with some Quilter-specific factors, in particular, the loss of a certain cohort of investment managers in Quilter Cheviot last year.

"Positively, gross flows within Quilter Cheviot in the third quarter were up year-on-year partially reflecting the contribution from recent investment manager hires."

Quilter reported assets under management of £118.7bn, which had grown by 9 per cent since the beginning of the year in a rise the wealth manager partially attributed to positive market performance. 

Mr Feeney said: "Notwithstanding the challenging backdrop, we continue to be encouraged by resilient gross flows and high levels of customer asset retention across our businesses which were broadly stable on 2018, excluding the impact of the Quilter Cheviot outflows.

"While near-term headwinds remain, this demonstrates that our clients and their advisers value Quilter's integrated advice-led model, and this continues to provide support to our revenue and operating margin outlook."

The Quilter boss said he expected the newly acquired Lighthouse and Charles Derby Group would being contributing "more meaningfully to flows" in the business from next year. 

He added: "The platform transformation programme continues to progress well, with the first migration planned for early 2020, in line with previous announcements.

"Together, this will help secure our goal of making Quilter the best place to go for trusted financial advice in the UK."

rachel.mortimer@ft.com 

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