Who We Are
Origins
Fowler Drew Limited was formed (originally as No Monkey Business Limited) late in 2004 by Stuart Fowler, a leading institutional investment manager and author of No Monkey Business: what Investors need to know and why (FT Prentice Hall 2002).
‘A cautionary tale about monkey tricks in the financial jungle’, the book highlights the gulf in both ethical and technical standards between the institutional world Stuart was familiar with, as an adviser to pension schemes and sovereign wealth funds, and the retail financial service firms he saw as a customer. The book was not intended as a DIY manual but rather to help people to be better and more confident in selecting who to hire to help them, what to pay and how to pay.
The book’s own integrity gap was that the right agents were very hard, if not impossible, to find. The business was formed to fill this gap.
Facts and figures
- Authorised by the FSA as a ‘personal investment firm’ to provide financial advice and discretionary investment management
- Independent (as defined by the FSA, ie our scope covers all ‘retail investment products’ with no restrictions and no ties to providers)
- Wholly owned by its management
- Largest client segments: lawyers, finance professionals, management consultants, doctors
- Total funds under management (ex property): £136 million
- Most portfolios lie in range of £1-10m
- All terms are negotiated based on service scope and value not just asset value
- ‘Initial Review’ financial planning fees range between £3,500 and £7,500 plus VAT
- Flat fees for portfolio management mostly work out at between 0.4 and 0.7% of assets
- 100% of portfolio clients start with an Initial Review
- 80% of Initial Review clients go on to retain us as managers
- In an independent survey of all our portfolio clients in 2010, ‘peace of mind’ was the most cited difference we made
- ‘Integrity’ and ‘openness’ were the firm attributes most frequently cited as most valued
