He says some of the providers that provide custody services “are quite London-centric”, but travel to meet those is easy.
Polson says the fact wealth management “has always been a regionalised business” means that asset managers, wherever they happen to be based, are very comfortable with requests to travel to meet clients.
This means that wealth managers in provincial cities have ample access to those firms they wish to meet – something that likely reduces the barriers to entry for new firms wishing to enter the market.
He says the ecosystem of fintech companies in Scotland is very strong and those factors mean that “the old establishment stuff, while still there, is probably weaker now than it was in the past”.
David Thorpe is senior investment editor at FT Adviser
