InvestmentsMar 13 2023

Dowgate offers 'better than average' compensation to poach wealth managers

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Dowgate offers 'better than average' compensation to poach wealth managers

Dowgate Wealth, a discretionary wealth manager that was founded by a group of former Hargreave Hale colleagues, hopes to grow by poaching wealth managers from rivals, according to the company's chief executives. 

Dowgate Wealth has assets under management of £500mn, and operates a smaller companies fund - run by Chadwick - and a European equity fund, bringing the total assets under management of the group to just under £1bn. 

Central to his approach for growing the wealth management business is a plan to recruit managers from other firms, including firms that have been taken over, and where the wealth managers may feel constrained by being part of a larger organisation.

He said: “We offer better than average compensation for our managers on the basis of the assets they bring with them.

"In comparison to the larger houses, we give individuals free reign to be in charge of their own clients – within a guided framework – with regard to asset allocation and stock picks.

"Dowgate Wealth is a young team with strong collegiate culture and provides good corporate access to companies, IPOs and company meetings.”

Chadwick added that wealth managers who join the firm may be given the opportunity to either buy shares in the company, or receive shares in the company.

This is usually linked to the level of assets a wealth manager can bring with them from their previous employer or firm.

Dowgate Wealth currently has 25 staff and shares some staff with the wider Dowgate Capital Group.

Lorna Tilbian, who is executive chair of Dowgate Capital, co-founded Numis in 2001 and has been at Dowgate Capital since 2019.

Chadwick’s former employer, Hargreave Hale, subsequently became part of the Canaccord Genuity group back in 2017.

Chadwick spent more than 20 years at Hargreave Hale, mostly as an investment director, then spent time at Canaccord, before joining Dowgate at the end of 2020 and becoming chief executive in September 2022. 

david.thorpe@ft.com