UK financial advice and support services group Sesame Bankhall has named Rory Gravatt as leader of its product and investment funds research service.

Gravatt will lead the research team in order to meet advisors’ shifting needs ahead of the Retail Distribution Review. He joins Sesame as senior research manager from Distribution Technology, where he was a senior solutions consultant. Before that, he was head of pensions and protection research at Tenet Group.

In other related news, Sesame promoted its chief operating officer, George Higginson, to chief executive in November last year.

In addition, the firm appointed Pan Andreas as head of its wealth management team earlier this month.