Tavistock Investments is ready to launch its platform for advisers which it has previously said will help the listed advice firm reach £5bn in assets by 2025.
In its interim results published today (November 10) the company said it is about to launch the new platform service, which it is marketing as low-cost.
Earlier this year FTAdviser reported Tavistock was set to launch the platform as part of its plans to triple its funds under management over the next three years.
The company said: "The group will then be delivering all aspects of the financial services value chain to retail clients - financial advice, investment management and the platform service that provides for the administration and custodianship of clients' assets.
"At that point, the company will have established a solid, commercially successful base upon which to develop a much more substantial business."
Cost-Cutting
In today's market announcement Tavistock said its leadership team was "well advanced" with a business-wide reorganisation shuffle, which included the loss of both senior and junior staff.
The cost-cutting drive is expected to deliver more than £750,000 of annual savings and also includes Tavistock almost halving the number of its offices from eleven to six and moving away "from less productive areas of business activity".
This included the adviser's relationship with the Law Society, which Tavistock said was terminated amicably once it emerged it was "unlikely to deliver an appropriate level of return".
Brian Raven, chief executive of Tavistock Investments, said: "In a year of unprecedented pressure on our business, I am delighted by our group's performance and by how well our management team has adapted.
"We have undertaken a comprehensive cost saving exercise and are accelerating plans to significantly scale up our business.
"I am confident that these initiatives will enable us to deliver greater value to our shareholders and look forward to managing a growing dividend for their benefit."
Drop in new business
Tavistock said it was "confident" the business would perform well "over the medium and long term" despite uncertainty surrounding the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the aftermath of the US election.
But the listed adviser warned new business levels had been "heavily influenced" by advisers' ability to meet with clients and had been "adversely impacted in the short-term by recent events".
During the six months to September the level of advisory gross revenue fell by 8 per cent, falling from £11.6m in the same period in 2019 to £10.7m this year.
At the height of the crisis new business levels fell about 50 per cent at the height of the crisis, when Tavistock was buoyed by staff taking a voluntary pay cut before salaries returned to normal in July.
rachel.mortimer@ft.com
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