The spat between nationwide Monetary Planner Tavistock and its former wealth supervisor Titan has worsened with Tavistock instigating authorized motion agains Titan.
Earlier this week Berkshire Monetary Planner Tavistock terminated its 10-year strategic funding partnership with Titan Wealth, blaming “unacceptable efficiency.”
The shock axing of the tie-up, agreed in June 2021, was issued to the inventory market late on Monday.
Within the announcement Tavistock stated: “This follows a sustained interval of unacceptable efficiency by Titan.”
Titan subsequently issued a counter assertion accusing Tavistock of “severe wrongful conduct” in ending the deal beneath which Titan managed Tavistock funds.
In a Inventory Trade announcement right this moment Tavistock said: “The assertion made to the press by Titan on 9 July 2024 seems to mirror Titan’s view of the dispute, following Tavistock’s resolution to terminate. Tavistock strongly denies the suggestion of wrongful conduct and considers that Titan’s allegations are false and have been put ahead as a retaliatory step.
“The matter is now topic to pre-action correspondence and Tavistock doesn’t suggest to remark additional at this stage.”
In its assertion right this moment, Tavistock additionally revealed information from information agency FE Analytics highlighting what it calls the underperformance of Titan funds, with 5 Acumen Funds managed by Titan rating within the fourth quartile for efficiency between Aug 2022 and January this yr. A few of the funds cited are at or close to the underside of their sectors, in line with Tavistock utilizing FE Analytics figures.
Ascot-based Tavistock has suffered losses in latest instances and has been reviewing future technique, though it just lately stated it had seen some enchancment financially. Final month it confirmed that it was contemplating “a variety of potential transactions” together with a bid from rival Monetary Planner Saltus for a part of its enterprise.
In response, Titan says it has a declare for damages after Tavistock ended the funding settlement.
Titan’s assertion this week stated: “Titan notes Tavistock’s announcement dated 8 July 2024 that its 10-year partnership with Titan has come to an finish. Tavistock’s suggestion that the partnership has been terminated due to ‘unacceptable efficiency’ by Titan is incorrect, and strongly denied. The partnership was terminated by Titan in opposition to a background of significant wrongful conduct by Tavistock and sure people related to it who, Titan believes, have intentionally acted opposite to the phrases of the partnership.
“In gentle of these issues, and opposite to the ‘expectation’ of Tavistock’s board, as mirrored in its announcement, there are not any additional sums which Titan expects to pay to Tavistock beneath the settlement. Actually, by cause of the wrongful conduct referred to, it’s Titan that has claims in opposition to Tavistock for substantial damages. These claims at the moment are the topic of pre-action correspondence between the events’ authorized representatives in accordance with the relevant Courtroom protocols, and accordingly, it might be inappropriate for Titan to remark additional on them at this stage.”
In June Tavistock government chairman Oliver Cooke moved from an government chair function to turn out to be non-exec chair.
Final October Tavistock reported higher buying and selling after beforehand making a lack of practically £1m. The earlier yr the group reaped a windfall revenue of £30.67m after the sale of its funding arm Tavistock Wealth to Titan Wealth in August 2021 for an preliminary sum of £20m.
Regardless of its struggles Tavistock has continued to make acquisitions. In April final yr the corporate acquired Exact Defend, a UK-wide safety enterprise primarily based in Bangor, Northern Eire, which it anticipated to be a significant contributor to the long run profitability of the group and has been built-in into the enterprise.
Following the transaction, Tavistock now has a community of greater than 400 advisers and different enterprise introducers working with greater than 110,000 UK retail purchasers with complete property estimated to be greater than £6bn, in addition to 350 company and affinity purchasers with some 16,000 staff.
