Appointment heralds restructuring of the Investment Committee and preparation for launch of suite of new investment strategies and products.
Kingswood Holdings Ltd (‘Kingswood’), the listed UK based wealth manager, today announces that Richard Jeffrey is joining the Group as Chairman of the Investment Committee where he will work with clients and shareholders to boost the firm’s presence in the investment industry.
Kingswood is embarking on an enhanced strategy to provide existing and new clients unprecedented access to best in class, capital protected, yield enhanced investment products across equities, fixed income and alternatives managed by best in class global investment managers. Many of these products are currently available only to institutional investors. The goal is to provide clients with high quality products and service on a cost effective basis under the global Kingswood brand.
To achieve this, the firm is building a robust Investment Committee process with a group of highly experienced investment professionals, under the stewardship of Mr Jeffrey. Further new committee members will be announced in due course.
Most recently, Mr Jeffrey was Chief Investment Officer (CIO) and then Chief Economist at Cazenove Capital, part of the Schroders group. As CIO, his responsibilities included overseeing a successful range of investment funds, including Cazenove Capital’s own total return funds. Prior to that, he was Chief Operating Officer at Ingenious Securities and Head of Research and Chief Economist at Bridgewell Securities. He was also Chief Economist at Charterhouse Bank. He began his career in the investment industry at Hoare Govett, eventually becoming Head of Economics and Strategy.
Mr Jeffrey has worked with several think-tanks, including the Centre for Policy Studies and the Adam Smith Institute. He sat on the Council of Economic Advisors to successive Conservative shadow chancellors and also provided economic advice within the team at 10 Downing Street during the 1992 election campaign.
Kingswood, which has more than 4,500 active clients and assets under management of £1.9bn, is focussed on becoming a leader in the UK wealth and investment management market by building a nationally recognised, listed brand.
Buzz West, Chairman of the Board at Kingswood, said: “We are delighted to welcome Richard to Kingswood. His significant experience and expertise in the investment management sector will be invaluable as we continue to drive growth in revenue and assets under management.”
Commenting on his appointment, Richard Jeffrey, said: “I’m very excited to be joining Kingswood at such a pivotal point in the firm’s development. The firm has ambitious plans to be a nationally recognised wealth and investment management brand and is well on its way achieving these goals.”
Kingswood has been heavily active in the acquisitions market. The firm acquired East Yorkshire IFA firm Marchant McKechnie in October 2018 and Thomas & Co Financial Services in Oxford earlier this month. The acquisitions broaden Kingswood’s UK footprint, adding to its existing office network in London, Manchester, Cheltenham, Maidstone and Worcester. The firm continues to pursue additional accretive investments across the UK with a pipeline in excess of £100 million under evaluation. Kingswood is also in active discussions to gain a foothold in the US market in the very near future and continues to actively pursue its goal of growing the business globally.
Gary Wilder, Group CEO at Kingswood commented: “We have a strong pipeline of domestic and international opportunities that we are currently evaluating. Our integrated wealth and investment management platform provides Kingswood with a strong competitive advantage and enables us to drive growth initiatives under a common brand. We have a strong and scalable operating platform with the capacity to support incremental revenue and earnings growth from future acquisitions, delivering sustainable profitability and value for our shareholders.
“The wealth management market remains very fragmented and we feel that there is a great opportunity to build a national brand for quality, wealth planning advice and investment management.”