Jawad joins the firm from global wealth manager Schroders, where he was a client relationship director based in Switzerland.

During his time at Schroders, he served wealthy families across the GCC as well as lead the bank’s coverage of Middle Eastern wealth managers and financial institutions.

Prior to this, Jawad was at Arbuthnot Latham, HSBC and Standard Bank Group. He has worked in several of the world’s leading financial centres serving Middle Eastern families, including London, Geneva, Dubai and Jersey.

Jawad specialises in dealing with family offices and key family advisers to tackle the complex challenges and responsibilities that come with substantial wealth.

David Smylie – group head of GSB Private, said: “We are delighted to welcome Joseph to the GSB Private team, and he brings considerable experience across our three core service lines; Private Banking, Private Office and Private Finance. Joseph’s skillset, dynamism and knowledge & experience of the region will add huge value and further bolster GSB’s capabilities.”

This news follows the launch of the GSB Capital division, which focuses on M&A, growth capital, direct investment, and a range of other advisory services. Financial services group GSB consists of GSB Wealth, GSB Private and GSB Capital.

The financial services firm has appointed Nigel Gregory and Christopher Somers to the group’s Dubai office.

Gregory joins as global head of GSB Capital and has worked in various senior executive roles across compliance, training, sales, and management in UK banks for 10 years.

Somers joins as senior partner in the GSB Private banking team and prior to joining, has held senior positions at Standard Chartered Bank and the Royal Bank of Canada.

CII

The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) has announced Enas Asiri and Suresh Nair as vice presidents.

Asiri is a long-standing member of the CII and became a Fellow (FCII) in 2015. Prior to joining National Life Assurance (BNL) in 2017, she was the head of the life and medical operations at the Arab Insurance Group (ARIG).

Nair brings three decades of experience in the insurance industry and is currently the executive director at Gargash Insurance Services in Dubai. He is also a Fellow of the CII and holds an MBA.

Lombard Odier

The wealth planning team has announced David Barker as senior wealth planner.

Barker has worked for over 25 years at the accountancy firm, Rawlinson & Hunter, in roles including head of tax and managing partner.

Sarasin & Partners

The investment manager has appointed Edward Lloyd and Jack Brodie.

Lloyd joins as senior investment manager after six years at Quilter Cheviot, whilst Brodie joins as investment analyst at the Sarasin Bread Street team.

Loyal North PLC

The financial planning business has hired Kuan Ang as group finance director and board member of the executive committee.

Ang brings 20 years’ experience working in senior roles for Ernst & Young and Deloitte.

SimplyBiz

The financial advice firm has hired Fabian Wiesner as head of distribution partnerships.

Wiesner joins from Aviva Investors as strategic partners manager and has previously held positions at Old Mutual Global Investors.

Spring Capital Partners

The funds distribution partner has appointed Dani Hristova and Will Nott as non-executive directors.

Hristova began her career at Legal & General Investment Management in 2015, and has since worked at Schroders Investment Management and Nordea Asset Management. She was recently appointed chief executive of Independent Investment Management Initiative (IIMI).

Nott brings four decades worth of asset management experience. He spent 34 years with M&G, where he was the chief executive of M&G Securities for 17 years. He was the President of the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) from 2017 to 2019, and is currently chairman of Door Ventures, the digital RFP platform.

Mirabaud Wealth Management

The investment service has appointed Jonathan Unwin as head of portfolio management for the UK.

Unwin brings over 16 years’ experience managing client wealth. He has worked at Credit Suisse and in 2015, was the deputy head of asset management at Banque Havilland, a Luxembourg-based private bank.

Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI)

The professional body has hired Emma Black as president of the CISI North East Committee.

Black co-founded the wealth management company called Tier One Capital and built a compare-the-market savings tool called Cascade Cash Management. She also co-founded the new bank – GB Bank – in 2017 and has lectured across undergraduate and post-graduate levels at Durham University, Newcastle University and Leeds University.

The wealth manager has hired Jon Urquhart as managing partner and co-head of GSB Private as it continues to expand its UK business.

Urquhart has spent 18 years in financial services, most recently as director of mortgages at Mantra Group, where he led the mortgages division and was a specialist in large loans with private banking clients.

Evelyn Partners

The professional services firm has appointed Bindesh Sajvani as chief risk officer and group head of compliance.

Sajvani joins from Pendal Group the owner of J O Hambro Capital Management, where he was the global chief risk officer.

Prior to this he was global chief risk officer for Intermediate Capital Group Plc, the UK publicly listed alternative asset management group.

His career has included senior risk and compliance roles in subsidiaries of Lloyds Bank Plc (Scottish Widows Investment Management), Aviva Plc (Morley Fund Management) and at Aberdeen Asset Management.

CISI

The institute has promoted Glen Murphy to head of CISI’s Wealth Management Forum Committee.
Murphy takes over from Hamish Warnock, who has chaired the committee since 2020.

He has over 20 years of experience in wealth and investment management. He was formerly chief operating officer at Stonehage Fleming and Multrees and has held leadership roles at Schroders and Rathbones.

He is also a member of the CISI Fintech Forum Committee.

Murphy is keen to grow the professional forum membership to drive more robust engagement in the CISI through regular activities and thought leadership events.

The institute has also appointed Christopher Clark and Sushil Saluja as new members of the board.

Clark is a relationship manager at RBC Brewin Dolphin and has been active with the CISI Scottish Committee for many years.

He served as committee president for four years and has been a keen advocate of financial education.

Saluja is a senior business leader and adviser based in London, focused on international business, technology-led transformation, and education .

He has over 30 years’ prior experience at Accenture. He led business units for EMEA (based in London) and Asia Pacific (based in Hong Kong) and has launched FinTech accelerators in Hong Kong and Dubai.
Since leaving Accenture, he has undertaken roles within Temasek (Singapore) and for the Bank of England. He currently acts as senior adviser to several multinational organisations.

Liontrust

The asset manager has appointed Kristian Cook as head of UK distribution.

Under Cook, the UK single strategy and Multi-Asset sales teams are being brought into one team to further enhance the strong levels of client service at Liontrust.

Cook will report to Ian Chimes, head of global distribution.

Prior to joining Liontrust, he was at Franklin Templeton and JP Morgan Asset Management.

The newly structured UK sales team will promote both single strategy funds and solutions, with the latter including sustainable managed funds, multi-asset funds and portfolios, depending on the individual requirements of clients.

Bravura Solutions Limited

The software solutions provider has promoted Paul Dunn and Chris Spencer to regional chief executive officers.

Dun and Spencer will take up their new roles as chief executive’s of APAC and EMEA business respectively with immediate effect.

Both will be responsible for the end-to-end financial management and operational delivery for their regions, with a focus on driving growth and improving client outcomes.

And will report into group chief executive and managing director, Andrew Russell.

Hampden & Co

The private bank has hired Claire Mann to the new role of head of client proposition.
Mann will lead the bank’s Client Relationship Management (CRM) programme.

She will report to Andrew Bell, chief commercial officer at the bank.

Mann joins from Handelsbanken where she was senior operations and programme manager responsible for the design, implementation and management of CRM.

She has also held senior operational and CRM roles at NatWest, KPMG and HSBC.

There has even been growing interest in comic books and collectible cards with world renowned US rapper Post Malone paying $2m (£1.6m, €1.9m) for a rare one-of-a-kind card for the fantasy game ‘Magic: The Gathering’.

More notably in the UK, rising interest rates and market fluctuations are affecting many traditional asset classes which is paving the way for more people to seek out alternative assets to reach their investment goals.

Alternative assets can provide many positives to the investor such as advantageous tax positions and portfolio diversification but they also provides investors with something that traditional assets don’t – fun!

They can provide excitement and enjoyment to investors that comes with owning a tangible asset they can see and use.

However, these types of assets, as like any others, comes with its own risks which must be assessed before investors incorporate them into their financial plans.

Hedging against market volatility

Richard Bacon, head of business development at Shard Capital, said that passion assets are undergoing a transformation.

He said: “In the last two years there has been a tangible increase in how accessible and democratized these assets have become. They are becoming mainstream we haven’t seen before. The more we understand the headwinds we are facing in traditional asset classes given the current economic backdrop, the more important it is that we broaden our investment universe and look for alternative assets.”

As markets become more volatile, clients are turning to passion assets to safeguard their wealth.

Naomi Wharam-Adatia, private client director at GSB Private, commented: “These unconventional holdings provide a hedge against market volatility and inflation; typically maintaining value during economic downturns unlike traditional assets such as stocks and bonds.”

They can also provide investors with much higher returns outside of their traditional portfolios.

Wharam-Adatia provides the example of the price increase for Hermes bags which can fetch investors returns of up to 30% or more.

Rob Harrison, head of research at Progeny Asset Management, added: “These assets can deliver strong returns for the less risk averse investor and can be uncorrelated to what is gong on in stock markets and the wider economy so can be useful diversifiers for this reason.”

Advantageous tax position

Passion assets also have the added attraction of having an advantageous tax position.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) views many of these assets as ‘chattels’ which is property that is tangible and moveable and gives investors a £6,000 ($7,500, €7,000) tax free exemption.

Henry Lowe, partner in the private client team at Mercer & Hole, said: “HMRC is alive to the fact that the value of some collections is in their entirety rather than individual elements. If being sold from one person to another, HMRC may consider them a set and value them as one asset accordingly.

“For example, a case of wine, of the same vintage or from the same producer, would be considered a set and valued as a case rather than by the bottle.”

Some passion assets are also viewed by HMRC as ‘wasting assets’ which have a life of less than 50 years.

“Wasting assets, irrespective of their value when sold, are free from capital gains tax, except where the asset has been used in your business,” added Lowe.

Risk

Scott Atkinson, managing director at PFM Financial Planners, part of the Loyal North Group, highlighted that while there is nothing wrong with an investor indulging in their passions, these assets still carry a risk.

He said: “Using these types of assets as a basis of investment and financial planning is highly risky and completely unpredictable.”

There are certain obstacles that come with investing in alternative assets such as issues of liquidity and a lack of a centralised market.

Ed Read-Cutting, director at The Fry Group Belgium, said: “A significant challenge with passion assets lies in a potentially illiquid secondary market. Unlike more conventional investments, selling passion assets can be intricate and uncertain.

“Their value is often influenced by sentiment and demand, leading to potential price volatility and unpredictability when the time comes to sell.”

Lee Anderson, wealth planning director at the Atomos Preston office, also pointed out that the cons of passion asset investment can also include “high transaction costs, storage and maintenance expenses and the need for expertise to navigate the market effectively”.

Therefore, while investing in alternative assets can have many pros, it is important that investors are aware of the cons before investing.

This comes down to advisers and wealth managers to present the full picture to their clients and provide their professional opinion to help investors get the most out of their money as well as enjoying the process of investing in something they have a passion for.

GSB’s Wharam-Adatia added: “The intricacies of valuing, acquiring and maintaining such assets requires specialist knowledge and investors would be prudent to collaborate with trusted advisors who understand the market and can perform strict due diligence on their behalf, helping them to make informed decisions.”

Emotive experience

While there are valid arguments that passion asset investments should not be the foundation of an investors portfolio sitting alongside conventional investments, it can allow investors to have an emotive experience.

Jennifer Toon-Davenport, membership and acquisition director of Lawsons Networks, said: “If someone really is interested in something, be it wine or watches or luxury fashion, then that surely is the best way to become an expert investor in whatever it is. And the more expert they are, the more money they are likely to make.”

Passion assets don’t only produce a financial return but also an emotional return that investors may not be able to get from traditional assets such as stocks and bonds.

They allow investors to put a personal touch on their investment portfolios and diversify it with things they have an interest in and value.

Charles Gillespie, wealth planner at Kingswood Group, uses himself as a case in point.

He said: “Personally, along with a small collection of art in recent years, I have invested in a portfolio of high grade first edition vintage comics as not only are they lovely to own and something of interest to me but also I believe that the long-term growth potential is excellent.”

Time will tell how popular investing in passion invests will become as markets continue to react to rising interest rates, and how that will impact various markets, but Gillespie points out that assets which are scarce will always be in demand.

Passion assets are gaining traction in the investment landscape and are a point of debate within the industry.

However, what is important is for those working in the industry to do their due diligence and help clients to not only receive financial gain from investments but also to gain emotional fulfilment which can be achieved by investing in passion assets, making sure they slot into a traditional portfolio while also safeguarding their clients financial future.