Fisher Wealth Management, the London-based arm of the US fund manager Fisher Investments, is looking to increase its private client director headcount by 50 per cent as part of its ambitious growth plans for the coming years.

The firm is looking to reach £3 billion in assets under management over the next five years; it currently employs 11 private client directors and is expecting to add one more within the next month and then to subsequently boost its roster by a further 50 per cent. Globally, Fisher Investments runs some $22 billion in funds.

While pension funds for high net worth individuals comprise a significant proportion of its UK business, the firm is understood to be looking to grow its offering across the full spectrum of wealth management services.

Fisher is far from alone in gearing up to deploy aggressive UK expansion plans as a number of firms are seeing the upcoming implementation of the regulator’s Retail Distribution Review as an opportunity to snap up clients from smaller, less well-prepared rivals. Critics of the package of reforms have argued that IFAs will be forced out of the industry due to factors such as increased costs and new mandatory minimum qualifications.