The first independent art advisor in the market to carry FCA approval has just been launched.
It’s called Cadell + Co and they claim that their unique FCA regulated offering means they’ll be able to support wealth managers, family offices, investment banks and trustees in preserving and enhancing the values of their clients’ portfolios. And at the same time, guarantee transparency and professionalism. The lack of which, they add, has caused the historical issues in the art in trust market, which is completely unregulated whose size is becoming increasingly significant – around $ 1.5 trillion globally.
Cadell aims to preserve and enhance the value of art portfolios, providing a bespoke database, management and reporting service. Cadell say that their FCA licence allows them to provide transparent and independent management guidance and transaction advice in a market that has, to this point, been completely unregulated.
Founding partners are Luke Dugdale, Richard Camber and Richard Bagnall-Smith.
As Head of Wealth Management, Dugdale oversees advisory and strategic services. Camber is the Partner responsible for Expertise who looks after the sourcing of the world’s leading authorities in each specialist sector. Head of Client Management and Sales Bagnall-Smith is responsible for client relationships and for negotiating art transactions.
Dugdale said: “The art market went from being a modest, private world of passion, to becoming a significant proportion of high net worth wealth portfolio. The emergence of art as a mature mainstream asset has not been matched by the regulatory framework around it especially where it is held in trusts. Due to that, trustees responsible for art as part of their portfolios often do not get the appropriate tools or guidance to manage their collections properly.”
“The goal of Cadell+Co is to bring professional support to those trustees who want to know the value of what they own, and how to maintain it in the long term. Our expertise centres around considered preservation and enhancement of art portfolios.”
Bagnall-Smith said: “Many trustees have concerns about the current value of the art collections they’re responsible for. Works of art held in trust have often been in the owner’s possession for decades, and in that time, the value of individual pieces may have fluctuated dramatically; some may not have been valued at all.
“Our role will be to guide trustees and wealth managers in staying informed on the current and future valuation of their collections, to ensure they make the best decisions for clients. Our FCA approval means that trustees can have total confidence that the advice we give them is truly independent, transparent and supported by robust reporting. That is at the very heart of our offering.”
