Tavistock is looking to triple its funds under management over the next three years and reach £5bn in assets by 2025 as it launches a whole of market platform for its advisers.
Chief executive Brian Raven told FTAdviser he expected the national advice and investment firm’s Fum to reach between £3bn and £5bn in the next three to five years after it hit the £1bn milestone in its annual results published this morning (July 23).
His comments come as Tavistock looks to launch a whole of market platform for its advisers later this year in a bid to “manage the entire value chain” and provide its investment solutions more efficiently.
The platform, which will offer a range of funds including Tavistock’s own, is a bid to lower the overall cost of receiving advice and investments for the end client, Mr Raven said.
He said: “We continue looking at ways to do the best job we can by the client. Our opinion is that the client is often ignored in this industry in the quest for profitability, and we try very hard not to do that.
“If we’re able to deliver a platform solution which is a lower cost than the platforms a lot of retail clients are using, then that’s a plus. It also makes advisers’ lives easier as it will be integrated with back office functions and the client's details.”
The platform will be available to Tavistock’s own advisers and firms who are working with the network or making use of its investment products.
Owning a platform would also help Tavistock expand its investment range, Mr Raven said.
Tavistock plans to launch risk-based model portfolios, which are often tricky to run on third-party platforms, as part of its expansion plans.
The hunt for acquisitions
Mr Raven also told FTAdviser Tavistock was “continually looking” for potential acquisition opportunities.
In March the company raised £650,000 of equity capital in a share issuing, selling a minority stake (about 5 per cent) to a Hamon Investment Group, as part of a fundraiser for acquisitions.
But the coronavirus crisis soon halted the firm’s buyout pipeline as the UK was sent into lockdown and nearly a quarter of Tavistock’s workforce was furloughed.
Mr Raven said today it was “much more likely” there would be further acquisitions in the near future.
He said: “We’ve never ‘been out the game’, but we are very fussy. It is much more likely once the lockdown is eased fully, we will do something in the near-term rather than the long-term.”
When looking at potential firms, Mr Raven said Tavistock was primarily interested in owner-led businesses looking to sell and that any firm with a bad record in terms of compliance and suitability was “ruled out immediately”.
Cost cutting
Tavistock’s yearly results also showed the company was looking to implement a group-wide reorganisation which would save the firm more than £700,000 a year.
