Brooks Macdonald Asset Management has appointed Conor Dempsey as an investment management director at its London office.

Dempsey was latterly a private client portfolio manager at Barclays Wealth, having previously worked for Brewin Dolphin.

In his new role Dempsey will be both running private client portfolios and working as part of the firm’s research team specialising in emerging markets.

Brooks Macdonald said it is expanding its investment management team in order to cope with the increased business it is seeing from IFAs looking to outsource their investment management activities ahead of the implementation of the regulator’s Retail Distribution Review. Brooks is one among several firms, such as Close Asset Management and Cheviot, which have been busily snapping up assets from such advisors in recent months.

In related news, in late March Brooks Macdonald announced that it was launching a new funds business to be headed up by executive director Simon Wombwell. The new fund range will consist of the Braemar funds that the company acquired last July and four existing Brooks Macdonald funds. 

Brooks Macdonald currently has £2.803 billion (around $4.6 billion) in funds under management.