Zucker & Co, a freshly-minted UK wealth consultancy and investment advisory firm, set up by a former Barclays Wealth director, Olivier Zucker, is looking at an expected increase in client litigation, fuelled by the financial market turmoil, as one of the drivers of its business.

The firm will be based in London’s West End.

As high net worth and ultra HNW clients have been bloodied by heavy losses and problems with structured products and other investment vehicles, they have reached for their lawyers. An expected litigation increase means more demand for consultancy services, Mr Zucker told WealthBriefing in an interview yesterday.

“We see investor interest [coming] from litigation business of law firms where people want to see what they have invested in. And we also see more interest in getting advice on structured products,” he said.

Since the financial crisis broke almost two years ago, investors have sued banks, for example, that put client money into the Ponzi fraud scheme of US investor Bernard Madoff. In another example, there have been legal moves surrounding losses in fund investments operated by AIG, the embattled US insurance giant.

Meanwhile, clients want more information and advice about investing in structured products, or advice on products they may already hold, a fact that has been encouraged by problems in this sector, Mr Zucker said. The bankruptcy last autumn of Lehman Brothers has cast a pall over this sector as it has raised concerns about the strength of the capital protection these products offer.

To be a client of Mr Zucker’s investment advisory business, a client will typically require around a minimum of £1 million ($1.64 million) in investable wealth; the consultancy business will, meanwhile, charge an hourly fee, in the same manner as a law firm.

“At the moment, we see clients coming in mostly through law firms and accountancy firms,” he said, adding that professional and voluntary trustees were also an important source of clients.

Mr Zucker, a financial industry veteran of 24 years who had worked at Barclays Wealth between 2001 and 2008, said his firm will offer two main service elements: investment advice and wealth consultancy.

The firm’s work will mostly consist of offering second opinions, reviewing clients existing portfolios or simplifying financial products offered to them by their private banks. Other services include client risk profiling, developing asset allocation strategies and detailed performance analysis.