Top Ten HNW Wealth Managers

Charles White, who is described as a ‘class act’ by one peer, is very focused on preservation of capital, and continually aims not to succumb to ‘external pressures’ from shareholders. It’s the main benefit of being a boutique, he explains: ‘We’re not driven to grow for growth’s sake. If we go through a dull phase because we’ve taken a particularly cautious approach and the returns are suppressed, that’s fine – no one’s breathing down our neck.’

The employee-owned family firm is not a ‘bolt-on business’ – it occupies a niche space where personal relationships are more important to clients than ‘following fads or investment fashions’. This puts McInroy & Wood a world apart from the ‘general distrust with financial services’, says White. ‘We’ve avoided being tainted by the same brush that many larger, integrated institutions in the financial services have not been able to avoid.’

Clients want simplicity, adds White: ‘We invest in quality companies and focus on cash generation.’ The same principles are applied in stock-picking: ‘It’s nothing complex; it’s simply old-fashioned analysis of the fundamentals. We don’t use any fancy methodology for identifying companies that might, for a short period of time, be mispriced.’