About us

Deep roots in investments with independent financial advice

We are a boutique, fiercely independent, financial advisory firm based in South Oxfordshire. Founded in 2017 by Francois van der Merwe to provide investment consulting services to mostly offshore ultra-high-net-worth families and institutions, the business has adapted to become an FCA-authorised and regulated Independent Financial Adviser firm to UK-residents.

We serve UK-resident individuals, families and small to medium sized companies (and their owners) with a service that benefits from our 20+ years experience as an investment manager.

Francois van der Merwe FIA DipPFS

Francois has extensive experience in managing portfolios investing in all asset classes across investment styles - including significant experience with niche strategies like alternatives and hedge funds. His investment style is based on picking and combining the best specialist fund managers from around the world managing money in many different and complimentary ways.

This skillset was built up working most recently as the Deputy Chief Investment Officer and Head of Research for the public securities business at The Capital Partnership and before that as a multi-manager portfolio manager at Rasini & C., HSBC and the Bank of Bermuda. Experience also includes a role as Managing Director at a hedge fund, Holte Capital, in the mid 2000s. Francois started his career in the actuarial field with Sanlam in South Africa, before moving to the UK in 2000 to join Towers Perrin (now part of Willis Towers Watson), an actuarial consultancy, in their investment consulting division.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and holds the Level 4 Diploma in Regulated Financial Advice (DipPFS).