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Succession's Simon Chamberlain Dies; Firm Pays Tribute

Tom Burroughes

20 March 2017

A luminary of the UK wealth management industry, Simon Chamberlain, who was founder and group chief executive of Succession Advisory Services, has died, the firm has announced.

Succession had been a prominent acquirer of financial advisory firms, as part of a big shift in UK wealth advice since the Retail Distribution Review reform programme came into force in 2013. Mr Chamberlain was a prominent figure in this development, explaining why the wealth industry had to adapt to new circumstances.

"Our thoughts and concerns are with his wife Helen and children Charlotte, Henry and Olivia at this difficult time," a statement from the firm, issued late last week, said. It said no further announcements were being made. The group will continue to be led by its management team, headed by chairman Ray Pierce.

Mr Chamberlain had a substantial history of achievement in wealth management. He was a founding partner of St Jame's Place Capital, becoming its number one partner in 1993; a former development and recruitment director for Zurich in the UK, moving 5,000 individual advisors into a structured business practice model, and the founder of the Thinc Group (now Bluefin). He founded Succession in 2009, which today has more than 80 locations, 350 financial planners, and controls assets totalling more than £10.5 billion, according to the group's website. The group is a vertically integrated model, owning its own national advisory business, Succession Group.