More than half of this benefit was derived from advisers’ ability to help people avoid kneejerk decisions amid market volatility and economic uncertainty. This included encouraging clients to remain disciplined and reweight portfolios as global share markets reached record highs – despite the temptation to chase more gains.

“Advisers are much more than financial experts – they are also behavioural coaches who help clients cope with the emotional rollercoaster of both investing and life itself,” said Neil Rogan, Russell Investments’ managing director, head of distribution in Australia and New Zealand.

Russell Investments’ Value of an Adviser equation is calculated by adding together the estimated benefit of an adviser’s guidance on asset allocation (1.1%), behavioural coaching (3.3%) and tax planning (1.3%).

“Advisers’ practical support also helped clients maintain strategies like dollar cost averaging as rising inflation cut their disposable income,” Rogan said.

The report also highlights common challenges that advisers and their clients face in 2024.
These include:
• The financial burden faced by single retirees with insufficient capital to support themselves
• Increased demands on grandparents to pay school fees or help with housing costs
• The risk of inadvertently breaching tax regulations and incurring penalties
• A cost-of-living crisis that stymies the efforts of younger generations to pay off HECS and purchase property.

“This year’s findings highlight the real role advisers play in securing the future of their clients. It is a role closely aligned to Russell Investments’ own purpose of providing investment solutions that help more people retire with dignity,” said Tim Furlan, Russell Investments’ managing director, Australia and New Zealand.

Rogan concluded: “It’s important advisers continue to communicate their value to clients. This report shows that if an adviser can help clients avoid common behavioural mistakes, they likely provide value above and beyond their fees.”

Marty Flanagan will retire as president and chief executive of the investment giant on 30 June 2023.

He will continue as chairman emeritus until 31 Dec 2024, providing advice and guidance to the company.

The Invesco board of directors named Andrew Schlossberg, senior managing director and head of the Americas, to succeed Flanagan.

Schlossberg has been in the asset management industry since 1996 and with Invesco since 2001. He has served in multiple leadership roles across the company’s businesses and locations. Prior to his current position, he was based in Invesco’s UK office as senior managing director, head of Emea and chair of the board of Invesco UK.

Before the UK, he served as head of US retail distribution and global ETFs and, prior to that, was US chief marketing officer and head of global corporate development.

Doug Sharp, senior managing director and head of Emea, will assume an expanded leadership role as head of the Americas and Emea, and global responsibility for ETFs, SMAs and digital capabilities.

Sharp has served in his current role since 2019. He joined Invesco in 2008 from McKinsey & Co and has served in multiple leadership roles across the firm.

Invesco also announced that Stephanie Butcher, chief investment officer of Emea, and Tony Wong, global head of fixed income investments, have been named senior managing directors and co-heads of investments.

In addition, Greg McGreevey, senior managing director of investments, has decided to retire from the firm. He will serve as an advisor to Butcher, Wong and the firm on investment topics through 31 March 2023.

Russell Investments

The firm has hired Zach Buchwald as its next chief executive.

He is the former head of Blackrock’s North America institutional business.

Buchwald takes up the mantle from Michelle Seitz, who left the position towards the end of last year. Buchwald will be tasked with overseeing the firm’s growth plans.

Hampden & Co

The private bank has named Peter Craigie as chief risk officer and Gordon Syme as general counsel.

Craigie was at Lloyds Banking Group, where he was chief risk officer for islands banking.

Syme has joined from Aegon Asset Management, where he was head of legal and regulatory (UK).

Legal and General Investment Management (LGIM)

The investment firm has hired James Giblin as a fund manager in its asset allocation team.

Giblin, who joins after a three-and-a-half year spell at LGT Wealth Management, will be responsible for managing a range of retail multi-asset funds, as well as several client portfolios in its model portfolio service (MPS).

LGT Wealth Management

The UK wealth manager has appointed Lewis Gregory to its MPS team as portfolio manager.

Gregory was previously an investment manager at Mercer Private Wealth where he was responsible for managing multi-asset portfolios and goal-orientated portfolios for wealthy UK-based clients.

Rothschild & Co

The financial services giant has hired Guillermo Moreno Fontaneda as a senior client adviser to bolster its wealth management offering in Spain.

He joins from UBS, where he was a director and client adviser, private banking Iberia.

Cohen & Steers

The global investment manager has appointed Sean Cooney to the newly created role of head of UK wealth.

Cooney joined Cohen & Steers in May 2021 as senior director of Emea wholesale distribution from Gam, where he was client director for the UK wholesale distribution channel.

Rathbones Group

Tracey Williamson has joined the firm as regional manager of financial planning, according to her Linkedin profile.

She will be based in Scotland. Williamson was previously financial planning director at Forth Capital.

Burges Salmon

The UK law firm has appointed Suzanna Harvey as head of its private wealth sector.

Harvey specialises in tax, trusts, immigration and estate planning for international clients (both UK resident and non-resident) and provides tax advice to a wide range of clients, from ultra-high net worth individuals to private banks and other financial institutions.

She has been at the firm for 17 years.

Melbourne Capital Group

The expat advice firm has named Elmira Donald as private wealth manager and financial planner.

She is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Donald joins from Infinity Financial Solutions, where she was financial planner and client relationship consultant.

World famous investor Warren Buffett has named Berkshire Hathaway’s vice-chairman Greg Abel as his successor for the top job.

Abel has served as vice-chairman since 2018, overseeing the firm’s non-insurance business.

But, at 90 years old, Buffet has no intention to step down.

“The directors are in agreement that if something were to happen to me tonight, it would be Greg who’d take over tomorrow morning,” he told American news outlet CNBC.

Russell Investments

The global investment solutions firm has made a few changes to its senior leadership.

Kate El-Hillow joined as global chief investment officer and Kevin Klingert has been hired as president.

El-Hillow was previously at Goldman Sachs Asset Management where she served in several senior investment roles, while Klingert held leadership positions at Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Blackrock.

Chief operating officer Rick Smirl has left the company to take on a similar role at Virtus Investment Partners. As a result, Klingert will oversee the firm’s operations functions.

Additionally, Pete Gunning has been promoted to vice-chairman and strategic relationship officer. He has been at Russell Investment for 25 years and was most recently chief investment officer since 2018.

Artemis Investment Management

Rosalie Brown will become sales director for strategic alliances, effective from July 2021.

She will join from Allianz Global Investors, where she has worked as a director for business development, UK retail and wholesale since 2013.

Charles Russell Speechlys (CRS)

The UK-based law firm has promoted five lawyers to partners.

They are:

• Caroline Greenwell in commercial dispute resolution;
• Hugh Gunson in private wealth disputes;
• Dan Moore in corporate restructuring and insolvency;
• Kerry Stares in responsible business and pro bono; and,
• Jonathan Steele in corporate.

HanETF

The European issuer of white label Ucits ETFs has made two hires.

Simon Dale will become head of sales. He will be responsible for the firm’s sales strategy and its implementation across Europe. He previously held a similar role at Woodford Investment Management.

Ramon Williams joins as operations analyst from Fulcrum Asset Management where he was team lead and operations associate.

Howard Kennedy

Marc Proudfoot has been named as head of investment trusts at Howard Kennedy.

He joins from Scottish law firm Dickson Minto where he worked as an assistant solicitor for over nine years.

Irwin Mitchell

Tara Smith has been promoted to associate solicitor within the law firm’s family law team.

She re-joined Irwin Mitchell in 2018 as a solicitor, after working as a paralegal and trainee solicitor at the firm between 2013 and 2017.

Four years ago, I went to bed assuming that she would win [admittedly as I did with the Brexit vote, which clearly demonstrates why I am not a political pundit].

I woke up at 3am and checked the results, then spent the next hour trying to do electoral college algebra to figure out how she might still win.

It was not fun.

This time, I stayed up. And I made it until 3am before losing the will to live.

Diabolical coverage on the BBC and ITV forced me to turn to CNN, where the presenters proceeded to throw so many statistics at me that I thought I was watching the Grand National.

I sit here now, after three hours of sleep and a lot of caffeine, deeply frustrated that the process is so complicated.

And I am 100% not alone. Misery does, after all, love company.

Reaction?

While journalists have the unenviable task of writing up breaking developments, which invariably means articles are out of date within hours, the financial services industry has to formulate a response to, or offer an opinion on, an as-of-yet non-event.

With Trump already declaring victory – to the horror of many within his own party – and threatening court action… this (to borrow a Biden phrase) “malarkey” is unlikely to be over any time soon.

Below is a roundup of some of the latest views of where this day [week… month…?] may take us.

Don’t invest in pollsters

Simon King, chief investment officer of Vermeer Partners: “This is tricky from a markets point of view, some may call it the nightmare scenario: indecisive, dangerous and divisive.

“We won’t see anything conclusive soon. Trump will dig his heels in and it will run and run, and as we know from past experience not in any orderly manner. This uncertainty will hurt the markets for sure; but should the bookies be right, and the White House stay red, then we’d expect a positive stock market response in the midterm, with healthcare a likely star of the show.

“Frankly, I wouldn’t be investing in any political polling companies anytime soon – I doubt anyone will be paying much attention to those again.”

An unpalatable cocktail

Randeep Somel, equities fund manager, M&G Investments: “A second-term for president Donald Trump is looking like a possibility in what has so far been a poor showing for the pollsters, who had Joe Biden up strongly in key swing states coming into the Election.

“Trump has significantly outperformed expectations, managing to hold Florida and Texas and looking increasingly confident of victory in key battlegrounds. So far, Trump’s confidence of victory is being reflected in the markets, with value stocks such as oil up in futures trading and a rally in the dollar likely if Trump holds out.

“This could change as absentee ballots are a big factor in this election which has not been the case in previous elections.

“At this stage a continuation of the status quo is likely – a Trump presidency, a Republican Senate and a Democrat House. However, absentee ballots could still favour the Democrats. This will have implications for US fiscal expansion, which would be far larger in the case of a Democrat clean sweep, given the $2trn (£1.5trn, €1.7trn) stimulus package that has been on the table.

“However, we still expect some form of fiscal stimulus irrespective of who wins the White House, as both parties put electoral manoeuvring to one side and focus on building back the US economy.”

Healthy dose of patience

Paul Eitelman, senior investment strategist, Russell Investments: “The election outcome still looks very uncertain. Futures are mixed across all regions. A more probable consequence for markets is the Senate outcome and this hangs in the balance.

“A Republican senate majority reduces the likely amount of fiscal stimulus in early 2021. The large rally in the US 10-year highlights the risks investors are seeing around stimulus.

“It looks like we will all need a healthy dose of patience this week, as results continue to roll in. A protracted period with no known result could inject volatility into financial markets. What we do know is that the U.S. and global economy are both still in the early innings of a new cyclical expansion.

“Politics offers plenty of surprises, but there are some very powerful economic forces already at work that don’t care at all about who is in the White House.”

Digesting the situation

Richard Carter, head of fixed income research, Quilter Cheviot: “Once again, the polls have underestimated the depth of support for Trump and it is possible he may well end up as the winner.

“In the short term, this is disappointing for markets and raises the prospect of several days or even weeks of uncertainty and possible legal challenges. Investors had been also been hoping that a clear victory would open the door to a massive stimulus package which would boost the US economy.

“This now appears unlikely, at least in the short-term, so we would expect to see some volatility today as markets digest the situation.

“The good news is that central banks will continue to provide large amount of supports through QE and low interest rates and this should reassure investors as we wait for news from Washington.”

The financial services company has appointed Nicola Fraser as group chief financial officer.

Fraser had worked for Aberdeen Asset Management since 2011, where she was chief financial officer for Emea.

When the company merged with Standard Life Investments to become Aberdeen Standard Investments, she became global head of financial risk.

She exited the company in September 2019.

Deutsche Bank

Kamran Khan has joined the bank in the newly created role of head of ESG for Asia Pacific.

He will be responsible for developing and coordinating the regional business strategy around ESG across all of the bank’s business divisions.

Invesco

The investment giant has made changes to its UK investment management team

Mark Barnett is leaving Invesco after 24 years, with James Goldstone and Ciaran Mallon taking over as co-managers of Barnett’s open-ended funds.

Martin Walker will continue to lead the team as head of UK equities and will manage the Perpetual Income and Growth Investment Trust.

These changes are with immediate effect.

Artemis

Sales director Tony van Gool is leaving the business later this year, our sister publication Portfolio Adviser has learned.

Van Gool is set to depart the boutique manager in August after 18 years with the company, having joined in 2001 from Invesco, where he was head of its advisory channel.

SVM Asset Management

The Edinburgh-headquartered investment firm has appointed Giles Robinson as head of sales and marketing.

He will oversee the sales and marketing team, with a particular focus on raising SVM’s profile with intermediaries.

Robinson previously worked at Miton Group, now Premier Miton, for over six years as a discretionary sales manager covering London and the Channel Islands.

Russell Investments

The global investment solutions provider has named Jaap Hoek as director of investment strategy and solutions for northern Europe, and Marleen Barents-Jager as sales director retail of Benelux and Nordics.

Hoek joins Russell Investments from Robeco, where he was most recently a director and portfolio strategist in the company’s investment solutions team.

Barents-Jager recently worked for Principal Global Investors, where she was responsible for business development activities, promoting and distributing the company’s range of mutual funds.

Quilter

The UK financial services firm has named Tim Breedon as an independent non-executive director.

He is currently a non-executive director of Barclays and Barclays Bank, chairing the board risk committee.

Before that, Breedon was at Legal & General, where he was the group chief executive from 2006 until June 2012.

Ravenscroft Investment Management

The investment firm has appointed Samantha Dovey to its board.

Dovey joined Ravenscroft in 2013 with responsibility for research and oversight of funded investments and is part of the multi-manager team.

Her role was expanded earlier this year when she became group head of fund research.