In the summer of last year, Defaqto carried out a survey which asked 345 advisers to name their favoured discretionary provider. Brewin Dolphin came out top, having come second when the survey was last carried out in January 2010.
Armed with this information, Investment Adviser asked a selection of advisers to name their discretionary manager of choice and the portfolio or service which had delivered for them. Based on the responses, coupled with the ratings given to the companies by Defaqto, our list of ‘brightest star’ discretionary managers was created, detailed below in alphabetical order:
Jamie Berry, Berry Asset Management
Mr Berry founded the firm alongside Neil Kennedy in 1981, having started his career at GT Management in 1973 as a UK portfolio manager. The Platform Managed Portfolio Solution offered by Berry Asset Management has a minimum investment of £1,000 (and £100 per month), opening up the discretionary option to those clients with smaller pots of money to invest. Although this service is technically managed by committee, Jamie Berry was a key driving force in its development.
Kevin Doran, Brown Shipley
Mr Doran is very risk-conscious, claiming in product literature that “a competitive level of income must be defined in relative terms. To target an absolute level of income would result in excessive risks being taken at the top of the cycle and insufficient risks at the bottom”.
Brown Shipley has three options for advisers – discretionary, managed portfolios or a range of collective products.
Robert Jukes and Edward Smith, Collins Stewart Wealth Management
Robert Jukes and Edward Smith are global strategists at Collins Stewart and are responsible for day-to-day management of the Remap portfolios.
In March 2012, Collins Stewart Wealth Management launched the ‘risk enhanced multi-asset portfolios’ (Remap) which was built to combat what the managers saw as flaws in the Model Portfolio Theory which traditionally underpins most risk tools.
Julian Menges and Ben Mountain, Quilter
The pair took over full responsibility of the managed portfolios when Charles Hepworth left the firm last February to join Gam and set up a discretionary management service there.
Quilter offers access to eight portfolios as part of its managed portfolio solution, which includes Adventurous, Growth, Balanced, Global Income, Income, Conservative, Defensive and Absolute Focus.
Jonathan Webster-Smith, Brooks Macdonald
Three risk-rated model portfolios, that are also sub-funds of the IFSL Brooks Macdonald open-ended fund, make up the service on offer from Brooks Macdonald. Investment director Jonathan Webster-Smith is responsible for managing discretionary client portfolios and heads up the wider managed portfolio services team.
Jenny Lowe is features editor at Investment Adviser
