The wealth management arm of pensions consultant WTW has reached £20bn in assets but further growth is a “strategic priority and focus”, according to Ben Leach, who heads up the division.
Apart from seeking to win more mandates from wealth managers and banks, there are plans to make some of the institutional funds run by WTW available to financial advisers.
WTW’s initial foray into the wealth market began in 2017, when the company won the mandate to run the Alliance Witan investment trust.
This became Alliance Witan in 2024 and is now part of the FTSE 100.
That contract accounts for about £4.7bn of the £20bn of assets within the wealth business.
The firm has also just passed the three year anniversary of its agreement to provide investment management services to wealth management company Atomos, in which it also has a shareholding.
Leach told FT Adviser: “Growing in the UK wealth space was a strategic priority, and then in 2024 after we had some success, the firm thought it deserved real focus and priority.
“I became head of wealth and retail and it was part of a strategic decision by the firm to move away from just being a pensions consultant.
“I would say we are past the beginning of our expansion into the wealth space. We are at the end of the beginning of that.”
Unlike many of the other firms seeking to expand in the UK wealth market, WTW has not launched a model portfolio range and has no plans to do so.
We are not a commoditised product, and model portfolios is a space that looks to be increasingly commoditised
Leach said while the company does work with advisers, “we know we are at the premium end of the market”.
“We are not a commoditised product, and model portfolios is a space that looks to be increasingly commoditised.
“We would say we want to offer a premium service, and maintain it. Our focus is on high-touch client relationships.”
A team of 15 people, who report to Leach, have the responsibility to speak with financial advisers and wealth firms about WTW’s offering.
But Leach said WTW will not be wroking with “thousands of firms”.
“There are a lot of two and three people adviser firms out there, and we probably aren’t right for them.
“But we do run bespoke equity mandates, of for example £50mn in size, and some of our institutional funds now have a minimum investment level of just £1mn.
“So an advice firm that has assets under management of £100mn, with a proportion of that in equities, we would be interested in speaking with them.”
No WTW employee has the specific job title of chief investment officer for wealth management, though there is a team of investment professionals, led by George Jecks.
The role of that team is to “think like the adviser” in terms of understanding how WTW’s investment capabilities can become aligned with those of an adviser.
While the UK economy is displaying little growth right now and there is an apparent exodus of high net worth individuals from the country, Leach said: “The UK is one of the great wealth management centres in the world, right up there with the US globally.”
“And we are in a world where defined contribution pensions are the vehicles of choice.
“There has been quite a dispersion of outcomes for clients in the UK, some have had very good outcomes and some have had very bad outcomes, but the gap is too wide, and that is where we can help.”
david.thorpe@ft.com
