The latest moves and appointments for wealth management roles in the UK, and other parts of Europe, the Middle East and select international locations.

Chester Rose Financial Planning
Chester Rose Financial Planning, the wealth planning firm founded by Richard Dunbabin, the former founder and CEO of Ascot Lloyd, has appointed Samantha Wallace (pictured) as head of creative arts pension scheme to lead the UK’s only dedicated pension scheme for professionals in the creative and performing arts.

A Chartered Fellow of the CISI, Wallace was formerly with Defaqto, where she was strategic accounts director responsible for commercial growth and leading relationships with national advice firms. Her background also includes integrating new advice firm partners and managing strategic acquisitions for national wealth manager Fairstone.

“Samantha’s appointment is a significant milestone as we expand our offering. Her diverse skill set will enable her to identify strategic opportunities within the scheme, as well as being a valuable asset as the firm accelerates its growth,” Dunbabin said. “Creative and arts professions tend to have feast-or-famine earnings – big paydays from a tour, show, or film, followed by long gaps with little or no income. As specialist advisors, we can help smooth this out with cash flow planning, emergency funds and ways of handling lump-sum payments, so they make it through lean periods.”

Founded in 2021 after acquiring Heritage Financial Advisers Ltd, Chester Rose is based in Newbury and now advises 650 clients with £400 million ($539.68 million) under management.

The Aspire Partnership
Tom Shorland (pictured below), who trained with The Aspire Partnership, has rejoined the firm’s eight-strong financial planning team. 

Tom Shorland

He first joined the business in 2013, spending nearly a decade developing his role before leaving to join a large corporate to broaden his experience in 2022. Joining, from Quilter Cheviot, he will be helping to drive new approaches to planning and structuring wealth, following significant changes to tax rules in recent budgets.

“We’re delighted to welcome Tom back to the firm, and we feel his appointment demonstrates our long-term commitment to building the best financial planning team in the South West,” Ian Larthe de Langladure, founding partner at The Aspire Partnership, said. “In the last three years, we have invested significantly in our processes, technology, offices and our client service. This is complemented by attracting the best possible talent as we always believe that our people are our greatest strength.”

Nikki King, managing partner at The Aspire Partnership, added: “Bringing Tom into the business is about more than expanding the advisory team – it is an investment in our future. His appointment reflects a shared commitment to building long-term relationships with clients and supporting the continued growth and success of Aspire.”

The Aspire Partnership, which has its offices in Queen Charlotte Street in Bristol City Centre, recently entered a strategic partnership with 7IM, a specialist investment management firm.

Carne Group
UK-based Carne Group, a European third-party management company (ManCo) and a provider of fund regulation and governance solutions, has appointed Keshava Shastry (pictured below) as chief capital markets and distribution officer.

Keshava Shastry

He will join Carne’s group executive committee. Shastry will work to strengthen the group’s capabilities in capital markets, including ETFs, private markets, product structuring and distribution, while helping to position Carne for broader investment-market opportunities, and evolving digital and tokenised financial infrastructure.

With more than two decades of international executive experience, Shastry brings a senior practitioner perspective that complements the deep regulatory, product and operational expertise already within Carne, the firm said in a statement. He also brings institutional relationships across public and private markets.

Formerly from First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), Shastry was senior managing director and global head of sales, serving on the global markets executive committee. Shastry spent more than a decade at Deutsche Bank and DWS, where he was global head of capital markets, managing trading eco-system partnerships and advising clients on asset allocation implementation as well as market structure and regulatory coordination.

He has also been head of capital markets at Credit Suisse, and ran the iShares markets team at BlackRock and Barclays Global Investors. He has also served as chair of both the Investment Association’s ETF committee and the European Fund and Asset Management Association’s ETF task force.

“As we continue to execute Carne’s long-term growth strategy, we’re focused on building the capabilities our clients will need as markets, products and distribution models evolve in the months and years ahead,” John Parkhouse, president of Carne Group, said. “Keshava is a highly execution-focused individual, with a rare combination of experience, that will help us bring market insight and execution closer together, so we can identify issues earlier, reduce friction and help clients bring the right solutions to market faster and more effectively."