UK-based Vestra Wealth has appointed two senior managers to its team, with one joining from Barclays Wealth and the other from Merrill Lynch, WealthBriefing can exclusively report.

Vestra, which was founded last summer, has hired James O’Hegarty, a former divisional director in the Birmingham office of Barclays Wealth, as a partner. This increases the number of investment managers at Vestra Wealth to fifteen, while William Townrow joins as relationship manager from Merrill Lynch. 

Mr O’Hegarty has previously worked in the UK and Hong. Prior to Barclays Wealth, he was head of the pensions and charities team at UK stockbroker Albert E Sharp.

The appointments add to those of recent joiners from Kleinwort Benson, Close Brothers and Brewin Dolphin.

Meanwhile, Vestra said that it has cut five front-office jobs but denied rumours that these were client-facing roles.

"None of these individuals were managing client money but were junior support staff working in the front-office," a spokesperson told WealthBriefing.