While the pandemic is restricting certain kinds of business activity it hasn't prevented the wealth management JV from launching its new regional network.

The wealth management joint venture of Schroders and Lloyds Banking Group is officially opening 11 regional offices in the UK today, even though managers cannot actually use their premises yet because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schroders Personal Wealth, formed in late 2018 in a bid to win a slice of the mass-affluent and high net worth individuals market, said its regional hubs will be “semi-autonomous advisor businesses within the SPW network”. 

Each hub is headed by a regional director. The hubs are based in Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Exeter, Guildford, Manchester, Leeds, London and Oxford. Schroders Personal Wealth will continue to have a head office in London and a centralised operations centre in Leeds. 

The rollout puts SPW up against a number of nationwide wealth management firms, such as UBS, Julius Baer, Coutts, Brown Shipley and Tilney. (See here for a look at the UBS regional build-out, for example.) 

The arrival of SPW in late 2018 was also a sign of Lloyds Banking Group, which battled back to profitability and shed its state ownership after the 2008 financial crisis, wanting to make a more determined push into domestic wealth management. 

“This is another important milestone for Schroders Personal Wealth. This group of new leaders will be pivotal in driving the success of the business going forward, both at the regional and group level,” Peter Hetherington, chief executive, said. 

“During the current environment supporting our clients remains paramount to us. We remain fully operational and continue to be in regular contact with clients and are available to support them through this period of heightened concern,” he continued.