Saunderson House chief executive Tony Overy has revealed 60 per cent of the company's new clients come through the discretionary fund management business it set up in 2016.
Writing in the annual report of IFG, Saunderson House’s parent company, Mr Overy said the motivation for setting up the DFM business in 2016 was to attract younger clients to the company.
Mr Overy wrote: "Winning clients earlier in their career was one of the core drivers for launching Saunderson House’s Discretionary Management Service in 2016, and this offering accounted for 60 per cent of new clients won in 2018.
"The firm’s efforts to extend its appeal to a younger client base have been successful – resulting in a fall in the average age of our client base; around 50 per cent of clients under the age of 50 having been won since 2016."
Discretionary fund managers run portfolios in the way they think best, rather than engaging regularly with the end client.
A Saunderson House representative said younger clients tended to prefer discretionary fund management products as work and lifestyle commitments meant they lacked the time to monitor investments.
Saunderson House is part of IFG Group, which is also the owner of James Hay. The whole company is being sold to private equity house Epiris for £206m.
IFG spent £3m trying to sell the Saunderson House business in 2018, without finding a buyer.
david.thorpe@ft.com
