Wealth managers

Wealth management firms are facing more serious consequences from a failure to meet suitability requirements as the regulator puts practices under fresh scrutiny.

After several years of strong growth, Hargreaves Lansdown has reported a drop in pre-tax profits for the last six months of 2014 as the impact of clean pricing offset a further rise in assets.

Signia Wealth's CEO and co-founder Nathalie Dauriac-Stoebe has resigned, following a string of departures from the group.

European Wealth has acquired two firms in order to boost its onshore and offshore wealth management services.

Brooks Macdonald has grown discretionary assets under management to £6.7bn, according to its first quarter results, with new business topping £100m despite market headwinds.

Charles Stanley has warned its next round of results will miss market expectations as the business continues to feel the squeeze on its commission income, while in a separate move it said it had sold Henry Dixon's Matterley fund to Miton Group.

Equilibrium Asset Management is to launch its own range of in-house funds next year as it looks to curtail its use of platforms and avoid trading delays.

John Betteridge, the former chief investment officer of Prudential's UK insurance division, has joined Rowan Dartington to head its asset allocation team.

Brewin Dolphin has negotiated a deal to reduce its payout to Figaro Technology after it backtracked on plans to roll out a new computer system earlier this year.

Proposals from Europe to restrict the use of dealing commissions to pay for investment research have been rejected by the Investment Management Association (IMA) and the Wealth Management Association.