Investments  

Behind the deal: How WTW bought a quarter of Atomos

Polin added: “As a firm Atomos has enough offices in the regions, but I would like to have more people in some of those offices, I don’t think we have enough people there relative to the size of the regions.” 

According to Calnan, there are numerous asset classes, such as private equity, private debt and real assets “where advised clients have had a raw deal.

Article continues after advert

"Advised and private clients haven’t really been able to access them, or if they could, it came at a high cost. I think a focus for us will be on exploring how we can work with Atomos to bring those solutions to clients.” 

He also hopes that the closer ties between the two firms will mean the greater buying power when negotiating with asset managers, and savings that can be passed on to clients. 

Calnan added: “We have learned a lot from Atomos over the past two and half years about how to communicate with the retail client and the next step is to help with product development.” 

Polin added: “We want to develop more products, particularly in the drawdown space.

"At present, Atomos help us with the strategic asset allocation. We have our own people who buy individual equities where that's appropriate, and then we will work with WTW on fund selection.”

david.thorpe@ft.com