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What a year it’s been for wealth managers. From tariffs and trade shocks to tie-ups and technological revolution, 2025 has been a non-stop rollercoaster for the sector.
After launching FN Wealth Management towards the end of last year, we’ve been right at the heart of the action. Here’s how we covered some of the biggest stories and broke some major exclusives this year.
January
A new year meant new jobs for some of the biggest names in the sector.
On 14 January, Coutts’ private clients boss Camilla Stowell left the Natwest-owned wealth firm. Two months later, she turned up as head of Rathbones’ wealth management business.
Then, Citigroup’s global private banking boss Ida Liu announced she was leaving the Wall Street bank on 27 January. The exit would go on to be significant for another reason later in the year; several colleagues complained that Citi’s wealth boss Andy Sieg had bullied Liu before she left, but she was not interviewed as part of an investigation into his behaviour, according to reports.
February
February brought some of the first rumblings of deal activity.Financial Newsrevealed that private equity-backed wealth manager Shackleton was sounding out buyers for the business. (Lee Equity Partners would end up winning the bidding war in June.)
Meanwhile, Schroders picked up a key hire, poaching Oliver Gregson from JPMorgan. We spoke to the fund giant to talk about its plans to score more business ultra wealthy families.
March
You might know what was Abrdn as a pensions provider. Or an asset manager. But it’s also turned into a pretty big wealth business in recent years. But more likely you’ll know it for its much-derided rebrand from Standard Life Aberdeen. That was reversed in March, putting the vowels back in Aberdeen.
That was quite the turnaround. As is what’s been going on at Julius Baer under Stefan Bollinger this year. Bollinger was the Swiss wealth manager’s third CEOs in eight years. We asked if he could be the one who finally fixes the firm.
Bollinger is 'like a human dynamo’, according to one former colleaguePhoto: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg/Getty Images
April
In a year defined by AI and technological shifts, April saw one of the highest-profile tie-ups to hit the wealth space to date. Citigroup entered into a strategic partnership with surveillance and analytics firm Palantir, a move it said will help “modernise” the technology underpinning its wealth platform.
We also profiled a young gun driving the future of the market. Sophie Kennedy, the co-CEO of EQ Investor, told us why becoming CEO of a wealth manager at 33 didn’t faze her, and how she weathered Trump and the ESG backlash.
May
Aside from technology, two of the biggest trends in wealth management this year were the flood of capital overseas, and private markets’ push into the space.
Article continues belowMay saw stories that epitomised both. We took a deep dive into why wealth managers were flocking to Dubai, and revealed that Ares was opening up a Milan office as it looks to woo wealthy investors flocking to the region.
June
Changes to the UK’s non-dom tax regime may have driven some individuals overseas, it wasn’t all one-way traffic. We spoke to a host of firms who said rich Americans were eyeing up London as a new home given the political environment in the US.
We also revealed JPMorgan’s pick to replace Gregson as UK private banking head: LatAm exec Maricé Brown.
Brown, managing director and a market manager for Mexico, would lead the Wall Street firm’s private banking business in the UK, Channel Islands and Ireland, Financial News revealed
July
July marked two years since the UBS sealed its mega-merger with Credit Suisse. We took a deep look inside its wealth management ambitions, and chief executive Sergio Ermotti’s efforts to revamp the wealth franchise to double down on key wealth markets such as the US and Asia.
While we were on new creations, several executives from RBC Brewin Dolphin quit the wealth manager to launch a challenger business, we revealed.
August
As the summer marched on, dealmaking didn’t slow down.FNbroke that Carlyle had won the bidding war for wealth platform Intelliflo. (Check out this feature later in the year to find out why regulatory headwinds haven’t stopped the M&A boom since.)
One of those key dealmakers is former Barclays man Jerry Del Missier, founder of Copper Street Capital. He moved to Milan, we revealed, but his wealth business One Four Nine was still sounding out buyers.
September
Tie-ups this year didn’t come much bigger than the deal that created a $430bn ultra high net worth wealth manager in September, when US wealth adviser Corient acquired multi-family office Stonehage Fleming and City wealth manager Stanhope Capital.
At the end of the month, another major deal in the space reached a landmark moment. After JPMorgan acquired digital wealth manager Nutmeg in 2021, it finally phased out the historic brand in favour of a new one: JPMorgan Personal Investing.
As September ended, so did JPMorgan's Nutmeg brandPhoto: Pavlo Gonchar/Getty Images
October
The biggest news to come out of October was Schroders and Lloyds calling off their landmark joint venture Schroders Personal Wealth. We took a look at where it all went wrong.
(Oh, and one more private equity don with fingers in the wealth management pie headed over to Milan, we revealed the same month.)
November
In another in a string of big-name interviews this year, we sat down with JPMorgan’s international private bank chief executive Adam Tejpaul. He walked us through why he has his sights set on Europe and the ‘extraordinary’ growth in his business to date.
For the bankers working on M&A in the wealth space it was also a fruitful month, as we broke the news that Goldman Sachs had been added to Evelyn Partners’ roster of advisers as the UK wealth giant lines up a closely watched sale process.
December
Our star-studded profiles didn’t stop by the time December rolled around. We bagged time with Citi’s Emea private banking boss James Holder to chat why he is rooting for the City despite all the pessimism, but also sees the untapped potential of the Middle East.
We also rounded off the year with an in-depth feature looking at the cost pressures that family offices have come under in recent years.
Thanks for all your support this year. If you want to read any of our amazing wealth management content, remember, you’ll need a subscription. To see if you’re eligible for a free trial, just emaillicensing@fnlondon.com.
Write toJustin Cash at justin.cash@dowjones.com
