Richard Klein to expand Kingswood’s offerings in alternative investments and enhance its distribution channels bringing 30 years of industry experience.
Kingswood Holdings Ltd (‘Kingswood’), the listed UK based wealth and investment manager, today announces that it has appointed Richard Klein as Head of Alternatives and Distribution to lead and expand Kingswood’s best of breed product offerings for distribution to the firm’s growing client base. Mr Klein’s principal focus will be on providing existing and future clients with unprecedented access to capital protected, yield-enhanced strategies managed by independent best in class asset managers with offerings in key asset classes including Private Equity, Real Estate, Infrastructure, Hedge Funds, Liquids & Credit.
These products are generally only available to institutional investors, but Kingswood is committed to providing investment opportunities to the mass affluent market. Richard joins on 1st March as a Partner and Managing Director and will sit on Kingswood’s Executive and Investment Committees.
Almost all of Mr Klein’s 30 plus year investment banking career was spent at Merrill Lynch, in a number of capital markets and international distribution roles. He left the sell-side to become Head of Business Development at Red Deer, a financial technology start-up spun out of a successful hedge fund. He joins Kingswood as departing CEO of Z Investment Management, the specialist advisory boutique in global financials and bank capital.
Kingswood is committed to becoming a leader in the UK wealth and investment management market by building a nationally recognised listed brand. It has more than 4,500 active clients and assets under management of £1.9bn. Earlier this month the firm launched an enhanced Managed Portfolio Service for intermediaries, providing discretionary managed, risk-rated investments for adviser clients. At the end of 2018 the firm also launched a range of ethical portfolios that map against its five risk-rated categories.
Gary Wilder, Kingswood’s Group CEO, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Richard to Kingswood. His extensive knowledge of alternative investments and distribution channels will help us to identify and grow strategic relationships, seed partnerships and make further acquisitions. We are endeavouring to partner with best in class managers in these asset classes and provide our mass affluent client base with access to products typically only available to institutional and Ultra HNW investors.”
Commenting on his appointment, Richard Klein said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be joining Kingswood at such an exciting time. The alternatives space is experiencing a boom in popularity, reaching an all-time high among fund buyers. My experience means I can help democratise the alternatives space for a much larger affluent market and ensure Kingswood further grows its existing and future offerings to a rapidly expanding client base.”
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.