Evelyn Partners

Company Profile

Evelyn Partners is one of the UK’s leading integrated wealth management and professional services groups, created following the merger of Tilney and Smith & Williamson in 2020. The group has £54.9 billion of assets under management (as at 30 June 2023) and ranks as the second largest UK wealth manager measured by EBITDA and the fifth largest professional services firm ranked by fee income, according to Accountancy Age’s 2022 rankings.

With 30 offices across 28 towns and cities in the UK, Channel Islands and Ireland, Evelyn Partners serves HNW and UHNW individuals and their families, entrepreneurs, charities, professional intermediaries, businesses and financial advisers. 

The group offers an extensive range of financial and professional services for individuals and businesses. Personal wealth management services include financial planning, investment management and advice, personal tax advice and, through Bestinvest, an online platform for self-directed investors. 

According to 2023 Savanta/FT Money research, Evelyn Partners currently has 591 advisers and 177,344 individual private clients in the UK.

History

Tilney was founded in 1836 in Liverpool by Thomas Tinley as a company for dealing in stocks and shares, with brothers Robert and George Tinley running the business after their father’s death in 1847. 

The firm grew through mergers – the first with Parr & Rae in 1957, and Sing & White in 1966. Tilney Sing Parr and Rae was acquired by Charterhouse Group (then owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland) in 1986, with the new entity named Charterhouse Tilney. Following a management buyout in 1993, it became Tinley & Co and continued to expand to become one of the largest fund managers and stockbrokers in the UK.

Tilney acquired the private client divisions of Edinburgh Fund Managers and SG Hambros in 2003, as well as The Pensions Partnership, a pension consultant, that year. Cardales, a specialist commercial property fund manager and service provider, was acquired in 2004.

Bridgepoint acquired Tilney in 2005, growing funds under management by 30%, before Tilney Group was acquired by Deutsche Bank’s private wealth management division in 2006 for an undisclosed sum.

This created several arms within the group: Tilney Investment Management, Tilney Private Wealth Management and Tilney Fund Management. Tilney Private Wealth Management was later rebranded to Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management.

In 2014 private equity firm Permira announced that it had acquired the group and would consolidate it alongside Permira’s other financial services company, Bestinvest.

Tilney Bestinvest acquired the Towry group for £600 million in 2016, creating a wealth management group with more than £20 billion in assets under management and administration. Following the integration of Towry, the firm became known as Tilney Group.

Tilney purchased Smith & Williamson –  founded in 1881 in Glasgow by David Johnstone Smith and Andrew Williamson – for £625 million in September 2019. The takeover was completed in 2020, and the merged Tilney Smith & Williamson business totaled more than £47 billion of assets under management. The transaction was backed by existing investor Permira and private equity firm Warburg Pincus.

Tilney Smith & Williamson bought Surrey-based financial and investment advisory firm HFS Milbourne in 2021, adding £376 million in assets.

In 2022 the company rebranded to Evelyn Partners, with the Bestinvest platform retained as a separate brand called Bestinvest by Evelyn Partners. The new name is a reference to Evelyn Gardens, the 1893 London address of one of the founders of the business, and partnership, one of the firm’s core values.

Senior leadership

Chair: Chris Grigg

Group Chief Executive Officer: Paul Geddes

Private client services

Wealth and investment management

With a wide range of services for private clients available under one roof, Evelyn Partners provides financial planning and investment management services to complex and multi-jurisdictional clients, including HNW, UHNW and international families (and their businesses), family offices, as well as onshore and offshore trusts, and landed estates.

Wealth management covers the full spectrum of individual and family finances, and includes:

• Financial planning, budgeting and cashflow modelling services, school-fees planning, deferring income and asset allocation, financial protection and insurance, as well as succession strategies to protect family wealth.
• Investing for children, managing pensions and planning for retirement, ensuring tax-efficient vehicles such as ISAs and JISAs are used effectively. Evelyn Partners’ private client tax advisers are involved to ensure that all relevant tax considerations are embedded in the offering.
• Inheritance tax and estate planning, with expertise in trusts, philanthropy, succession planning and wills; next-generation education and planning; landed estates and bloodstock; trustee and executorship services; intergenerational wealth transfer and dispute resolution; and charitable trusts and giving. This includes work with onshore and offshore trusts in relation to corporate reorganisation, exit planning and tax-efficient structures.
• Dealing with life-changing events such as divorce and financial remedy proceedings relating to matrimonial disputes, including the complex work of valuing disputed business interests.
• International financial planning, such as residence and domicile planning; and advising on existing structures and planning for offshore assets and remittances.

Investment management services for private clients, family offices, trusts and charities include:

• Discretionary investment management as well as an investment advisory service for those who want to manage their own money but would like help from a professional investment manager. 
• Managed portfolio services for private clients and their complex offshore and onshore structures, including open ended investment companies (Oeics), family investment companies, self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs) and family trusts.

Professional services

Providing specialist accountancy, assurance, tax and advisory services to individuals, business owners and corporate businesses. Includes forensic services; fraud and financial crime support; commercial disputes and dispute resolution; commercial dispute valuations; expert determination; monitoring trustee services; private client disputes; personal injury and clinical negligence; audit negligence and financial reporting dispute.

Locations

Aberdeen; Belfast; Birmingham; Bournemouth; Bracknell; Bristol; Brighton; Cambridge (Nine Hills Road); Cambridge (Trumpington High St); Cardiff; Chelmsford; Dublin (City); Dublin (Sandyford); Edinburgh; Exeter; Glasgow; Guildford; Harrogate (The Granary); Jersey; Knutsford; Leeds; Liverpool; London (Gresham Street); Maidstone; Manchester; Newcastle (St Ann’s Quay); Newcastle (Collingwood Street); Nottingham; Salisbury; Southampton