The company said that bringing in Andy Zanelli, a Fellow of the Personal Finance Society, was part of plans to develop its offering for Financial Planners.

Mr Zanelli spent the past eight years as head of technical consultancy for AXA Wealth.

He joins Ascentric as senior technical consultant.

Sarah Lyons, head of marketing at Ascentric, said: “The appointment of Andy is a key step for Ascentric as we look to build on our offering for Financial Planners.

“Andy’s extensive experience working with advisers on the technical challenges facing their clients will be a real asset to our business.

“Financial planners are being called upon to deliver a highly sophisticated service and Andy’s deep technical insight into this area will help deliver the support which advisers tell us that they’re looking for. Andy will be a real complement to Ascentric as we continue to broaden and strengthen our proposition throughout 2017 and beyond.”

Prior to his last role at Axa, he was a senior technical sales manager for Axa Life and has 27 years’ financial services experience in strategy, product proposition and marketing, as well as being a seasoned technical speaker.

Mr Zanelli will report to Justin Blower, head of sales at Ascentric, and will be responsible for developing and implementing a market leading adviser technical support function particularly focused on interpreting and communicating how changes in tax and regulation will impact financial advisers.

Mr Zanelli said: “Today’s high end financial advisers and their clients face an increasingly intricate web of tax and regulatory challenges. I look forward to developing Ascentric’s role as a provider of both the tools and the sophisticated insights being asked for by these advisers, to help them to take advantage of the opportunities these challenges present.”