Brewin Dolphin, one of the UK’s leading independent providers of discretionary wealth management, has issued its quarterly trading update for the quarter ended 31 December, 2018
David Nicol, Chief Executive, told IFA Magazine: “The first quarter has been characterised by lower market levels and ongoing macro-economic uncertainty. Against this backdrop, net discretionary inflows have remained strong and ahead of our 5% target, albeit intermediary client activity has slowed whilst intermediaries and their clients assess the current environment. Challenging market conditions reinforce the value Brewin Dolphin offers clients and we remain confident in our business model, strategy and long-term growth prospects. We will continue to invest selectively to build the business and retain a disciplined focus on operating expenses.”
Q1 Highlights
- During this quarter the MSCI Private Investor Balanced Index fell by 7.9% and the FTSE 100 Index fell by 10.4%.
- Against this backdrop, total funds reduced by 7.7% to £39.5bn (FY 2018: £42.8bn) and discretionary funds reduced by 7.2% to £34.9bn (FY 2018: £37.6bn) driven by lower market levels.
o Discretionary net flows, including transfers, were £0.5bn (Q1 2018: £0.7bn) in line with the last quarter of FY 2018 representing an annualised growth rate of 5.3%, ahead of our 5% per annum target.
o Direct net flows, including transfers, of £0.2bn continue the positive overall trend seen in FY 2018 and are in line with both Q1 and Q4 2018.
o MPS net flows were £0.2bn, an annualised growth rate of 26.7%.
o Intermediaries net flows were £0.1bn.
- Total income was £77.7m (Q1 2018: £79.0m), a decrease of 1.6%.
o Core income of £75.6m (Q1 2018: £76.2m) fell by 0.8%.
o Total discretionary income was £66.5m (Q1 2018: £67.3m), a decrease of 1.2%.
o Financial planning income grew 3.3% to £6.2m (Q1 2018: £6.0m).
