The chief executive of Brewin Dolphin has said the market is big enough for his firm to expand its advice offering without taking business from advisers.
David Nicol was speaking today (29 November) after the company published its results for the year ending in September 2017 where the company said it would expand its cost-effective advice service.
He said the service was initially aimed at existing Brewin clients who do not receive advice.
Mr Nicol said: "We are not taking on or taking away from the intermediaries we deal with. This is really targeted at the advice gap and there is plenty of business for all intermediaries, whether it be ourselves or the intermediaries we deal with."
He said that at the moment Brewin does not give advice to most of its clients on the majority of their money, and this service is aimed at the ones who are getting advice from no one.
Mr Nicol said: "Over time we could explore whether we take new clients, who are not clients today. There are a lot of people out there who have got a small pension pot, for example. There are far more of those out there than you would think.
"But initially we have got plenty of activity with our existing clients."
In May the company said it was looking into developing a "cost effective" planning service for those with less complex needs.
In an update today (29 November), Brewin revealed during 2017 it began rolling out a needs-based wealth planning and investment advice service for clients with simpler needs called WealthPilot.
Initially based in the London office, this is delivered by qualified advisers over the phone, Skype or face-to-face. Brewin has said it will expand this across its network during 2018.
Mr Nicol said the service, WealthPilot, currently has five advisers and Brewin would invest in bringing this up to 10 next year, as well as improving the technology and processes it uses.
He said: "We are doing this with existing tools and we need to see if we can make this more efficient.
"Over time we are looking to find technology that can leverage and reduce the amount of time that is required of the client and ourselves."
Brewin is also launching a new service for "sophisticated clients" with more complex needs which will be based and delivered in an "entrepreneurial, standalone environment".
This will be launched in the spring in a separate office.
Elsewhere in its results today, Brewin said it has seen its funds under management increase by 13 per cent to £40bn while its profits have also risen.
The company made a profit before tax of £57.6m during the year to the end of September 2017, up 15 per cent on the previous year.
damian.fantato@ft.com
