‘You can’t suddenly reinvent yourself with a pithy title’

After all, he is a man whose 25-year tenure in the City included a stint as head of private clients at BDO Stoy Hayward Investment Management when the 2008 financial crisis hit, before moving to Macquarie as head of distribution from 2009 as the drama unfolded.

“It was extraordinary,” he says. “Being responsible for a private client business and going through the banking crisis taught me some very important lessons that have stuck.”

You thought that the bosses had the answers, that they knew what they were doing

He says the experience showed him how powerful internal communication can be, and how crucial it is to map out every possible scenario of where a company is heading – two aspects that were lacking until the crisis brought them out.

“You thought that the bosses had the answers, that they knew what they were doing – after all, they were living in these big houses – then suddenly the crisis hit and it was obvious they didn’t,” he says. 

It is clear where this is heading; there is a corrosive, malevolent force about to devour us all.

“The financial crisis was the Brexit of its time,” he suggests. “But we must look through and past it. I wonder what is pending on the other side, what the recoil is?

“I think the Financial Conduct Authority will look at more market thematics in terms of competition, but there are a couple of themes emerging.” These are more regulation, the impact of technology and the changing face of the consumer, he notes. 

“As an industry, we have to figure out how we can digest the huge wall of regulation that has come towards us, and how it can be used positively to benefit the consumer,” Mr Porteous says. 

“At the moment, it’s like we have a bit of indigestion.”

Grow the Amazon jungle 

Companies should also look at adjacent industries to see how personal wealth services could be similarly upended, he adds.

“Amazon Prime is being increasingly cited,” he explains. “We have put a huge amount of trust in what is essentially fulfilment and content.

“I click a link and the following day, even a Sunday, there is what I ordered. People are saying they want to consume financial services in similar ways.”

He says companies – especially older ones such as Charles Stanley – must carefully balance innovation with the traditional values that have made them successful. 

“You can’t suddenly reinvent yourself with a pithy title and go from one extreme to the other,” he says.

He notes that few if any companies are not reviewing and restructuring their business in response to changes in consumer demand.

Does Charles Stanley need to change? Yes, says Mr Porteous. The company is under pressure to resolve its widening gender pay gap, and it is fully embracing the idea of a cultural shift, he notes.

He joined the wealth manager in March, having left his previous position as retailclient solutions director at Quilter after just over a year; his stay was short partly because Charles Stanley made an offer he could not refuse. 

He recognises he has an opportunity tonot only restore one of the oldest companies on the London Stock Exchange to its former glories but also to reshape its public profile and helping it navigate the choppy waters ahead.

“Charles Stanley is fundamentally undersold as a brand in the intermediary and the direct space,” he says. “It’s got huge upside potential. I am being asked to understand distribution, understand proposition and improve the brand.”

Listen and speak plainly 

Mr Porteous speaks fondly of his early days working in an office near the Bank of England, and is a keen observer of how rapidly wealth management has evolved in that time.

“The City was a magical place in the 1990s – otherworldly,” he says. “There aren’t as many of the really big personalities any more, the big beasts in the jungle, who used to dominate and would be incredibly outspoken and have a strong view.”

He says London’s financial sector was a more sociable place back then, and his advice is to encourage an environment of plain talking with consumers and clients – something he feels is a simple matter but is often lacking today.

“We definitely have observed changing preferences, and people are now investing pension funds in different ways for the rest of their lives,” he explains.

“We need to listen, as more and more customers, by definition, will become vulnerable as they age, and they will need far more guidance and support in how they manage their funds in later life.”

Mark Taylor is a freelance journalist