Marlborough launches bespoke personal portfolio service for advisers’ HNW clients

Marlborough has launched a new bespoke portfolio management offering, the Personal Portfolio service, for financial advisers’ high-net-worth clients.

The service is also aimed at advisers working with charities, trustees and other clients requiring bespoke portfolio management.

It has been developed by Edward Kennedy (pictured), who joined Marlborough in June 2024 in the newly created role of Head of Bespoke Discretionary Fund Management. He has now been appointed as Head of the Personal Portfolio service.

Kennedy began providing bespoke portfolio management services for the clients of a number of adviser firms last year and the Personal Portfolio service is now being opened up to the wider adviser community.

Kennedy has a financial services career spanning 27 years and has 19 years’ experience managing discretionary portfolios. He joined Marlborough after 10 years at Credit Suisse, where he was responsible for more than £2 billion of client assets. He was Head of Multi-Asset for the UK and Guernsey and chaired the UK asset allocation committee.

Prior to that he spent eight years as a multi-asset portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley, where he was responsible for more than £1.5 billion of assets in discretionary mandates.

Working alongside Kennedy is Rory Dowie, who was appointed in February as a portfolio manager for the Personal Portfolio service. Dowie has nearly a decade’s investment experience and also joined from Credit Suisse, where he was a Portfolio Manager.

The pair will work closely with the wider multi-asset investment solutions team, who have more than 200 years’ combined experience.

The Personal Portfolio service completes Marlborough’s comprehensive suite of investment solutions for advisers, including single-strategy funds, UK and international multi-asset portfolios and a managed portfolio solutions (MPS) service.

The bespoke offering is underpinned by a new IFA Charter that underlines the group’s commitment to working in partnership with advisers.

The charter emphasises that the Personal Portfolio team will always respect that the client relationship belongs to the adviser. They will never compete with or undermine an adviser and will only work with clients who have an adviser.

In addition, the Personal Portfolio team are committed to providing market-leading service, support and client engagement – and providing bespoke portfolios that enable clients to achieve their financial goals, while also reflecting their personal values.

Richard Goodall, CEO of Marlborough, said: “We’re very excited to be extending our proposition for financial advisers with this new service, which we’ve launched in response to requests from the IFA community. They told us how much they like our MPS service and how they really value the way we work in partnership with advisers, providing support to help them grow their businesses. They then asked if we could provide an additional bespoke offering for their high-net-worth clients.

“These clients will often have more complex investment requirements and need a more personalised, tailored approach. Consumer Duty requires the delivery of good outcomes for all types of client and this new capability means we’ll be able to support advisers by working as their trusted investment partner for high-net-worth clients too.

“Our new service combines the investment expertise you’d expect from Marlborough with a values-based, client-driven approach that we believe brings something new to the discretionary fund management market.”

The new service will work within the framework of Marlborough’s multi-asset investment process, which underpins all of the group’s multi-asset solutions: UK and international multi-asset portfolios and MPS.

The bespoke nature of the new offering means each portfolio will be tailored to the client’s specific requirements and take into account other assets held. In addition, while all Marlborough’s multi-asset portfolios are built using funds, the bespoke service will also directly hold individual equities and bonds. This is designed to provide additional opportunities for outperformance.

The client will have a dedicated portfolio manager who will adjust the portfolio as the individual’s investment goals and requirements change over time.

Kennedy said: “I’ve used what I’ve learned in 19 years of managing discretionary portfolios to build an entirely new personalised offering with an overriding focus on providing an outstanding service for clients.

“What is also absolutely at the heart of this service is our partnership approach, which means we work with advisers rather than competing with them. IFAs can trust us as their investment partner, knowing we’ll always respect the fact that the client relationship is theirs.

“We provide a personalised service that’s tailored to the client’s needs and frees up time for the adviser, who can use that extra time to continue to cultivate their all-important client relationships and grow their business.”

Goodall added: “Eddie and Rory are the ideal people to launch our new service. They’re outstanding portfolio managers who really understand the high-net-worth market and they share our commitment to working in partnership with advisers to help them grow their businesses by achieving first-class outcomes for clients.”

Dowie reports to Kennedy, who reports to Marlborough’s chief investment officer, Sheldon MacDonald.

Charges for the Personal Portfolio service will tiered, based on portfolio size, including family linking.

Marlborough is an independently owned financial services group with more than £18bn of assets under management.