Wealth manager and Financial Planning firm Brooks Macdonald has reported a 13.3% rise in group funds under management (£15.5bn) but revenues for its Financial Planning arm have dipped.

In its half year results, reported this morning, the firm attributed the growth in FUM to a robust investment performance of 9.5%, compared to an increase of 6.5% in the MSCI PIMFA Private Investor Balanced Index.

However, the firm saw revenue for its Financial Planning arm fall slightly to £1.9m (H1 2020: £2m).

The firm is planning to bring together the private client teams across its UK Investment Management and Financial Planning arms. The combined business units represent roughly £2.5bn in funds under management for advised clients, including clients that joined through the firm’s £39m acquisition of Cornelian completed in February 2020.

The group continued to see net outflows. The net outflows for the first half were £367m (£506m last time). However, the firm noted that group net flows were marginally positive in the calendar year to end February, excluding the Defensive Capital Fund which continues to experience outflows in line with trends in the Targeted Absolute Return sector.

Underlying profit before tax for the group rose 21.7% to £14m, driven by higher revenue and strong cost discipline.

Caroline Connellan, CEO of Brooks Macdonald, said that the period of transformation that the firm went through over the past two years continues to deliver strategic benefits for the business.

She said: “We continued to make good progress in the first half of the year, delivering strong financial performance as we moved into the next phase of our strategy, focused on accelerating growth and value creation.

"Our ongoing robust investment performance, coupled with high-quality acquisitions, brought FUM to record levels and, alongside strong cost discipline, resulted in record underlying profit margin. This shows that the investment we have made and the actions we have taken are delivering financial and strategic benefits for the business now and positioning us well for the future.”