These should be golden times for wealth managers. The affluent middle classes are getting richer. They also are more in need of handholding and advice because of the complexity of the new pension freedoms, the exotic number of investment options and the uncertainty over inheritance tax.
Brewin Dolphin, which has been advising families for more than 250 years and boasts a client roster of 60,000 with average investible assets of £690,000, should be well placed to prosper. Indeed, yesterday it unveiled improved results.
Total funds under management grew by 6.7 per cent. Net discretionary funds inflows grew by 6.8 per cent. Brewin prefers discretionary, where it makes all the decisions, over the more cumbersome advisory model, where it is obliged to seek approval before changing