Brooks Macdonald has opened an office in Cheltenham, just as it relocated its Taunton office to Exeter.
The Cheltenham office, which opens today (July 12) is the thirteenth in Brooks Macdonald’s network across the UK and Channel Islands.
The office will be headed up by Austen Speakman who joined Brooks Macdonald in 2009 and is responsible for managing bespoke discretionary portfolios on behalf of a range of clients.
The office opening coincides with the relocation of the Taunton office to Exeter, where the new location will continue to be led by John Sadgrove.
Brooks Macdonald said the opening of its two offices in the South West region formed the next step in its strategy to boost its regional presence and extended its reach with advisers and clients.
The group’s other offices are located in London, East Anglia, Hampshire, Leamington Spa, Leeds, Manchester, Tunbridge Wells, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Jersey and Guernsey.
Andrew Lewis, head of Wales and South West at Brooks Macdonald, said: “The South West is a key hub for financial services and the opening of these new offices will allow us to better serve advisers and clients across the region.
“We have long believed in the importance of a local presence and we are confident that the teams will continue to grow and build on the successes of the past years.”
In the three months to March Brooks Macdonald posted net flows of 0.3 per cent across its UK business in what it hailed as the "best quarter of the financial year to date".
Brooks' managed portfolio service was credited for the majority of the inflows, having posted a 7.1 per cent gain.
Funds saw outflows of 3.4 per cent driven predominantly by the Defensive Capital Fund, although the firm said outflows were lower than in the previous two quarters.
In May, the firm also appointed Andrew Shepherd as group chief executive officer, succeeding Caroline Connellan who is leaving for Standard Life Aberdeen.
sonia.rach@ft.com
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