A Financial Planner who set out to help develop the Financial Planning Profession in Ireland after moving from the UK has launched a new Dublin office for a fund management firm.

Marc Westlake, a Chartered and Certified Financial Planner, is heading up an entirely new branch of PortfolioMetrix in Ireland as the company expands. It was established in South Africa in 2010 and then London in 2012.

The discretionary investment firm has 25 Financial Planners in total, of which 6 are Certified Financial Planner professionals, and 4 are CFA Charter holders.

Mr Westlake, who co-founded the Society of Financial Planners in Ireland, will be heading up a team of three initially in his new role of chief executive.

Mr Westlake said: “Moving to Ireland from the UK at the end of 2007 presented me with a fantastic opportunity to influence the evolution of the Financial Planning Profession and I am the first Chartered Financial Planner and one of the first batch of CFPs in the Republic.

“I also co-founded the Society of Financial Planners in Ireland to provide a forum for continuing professional development.”

Mr Westlake, who previously worked for Bradford and Bingley, Towry Law and Cavanagh Financial Management, said: “With no RDR in the Republic of Ireland but with MiFID II on the horizon, the forward looking Irish advisers are now rapidly raising their game and there are now around 224 Certified Financial Planner Professionals in Ireland.

“I have always believed that Financial Planning had the potential to be a profession in an industry dominated by product sales. I have been an IFA for the last 23 years and remember first asking ‘what would happen if commissions were banned?’ way back in 1995.”

Mr Westlake, who has worked in the sector for 23 years, also teaches the Diploma in Investment and Capital Markets at Dublin Business School.

He said: “I have always had an interest in investing so it was a natural evolution for me to move from Private Client advice to Portfolio Management and working with other Financial Planners to assist with the development of their value proposition.”

He explained that when he arrived in Ireland there were no fund supermarkets, or platforms.

He said: “To simply invest my own pension in the funds I wanted I had to create from scratch the infrastructure of custodians, pension accounts and relationships with fund managers, ironically, these were all funds which were domiciled in Ireland but at the time had no Irish customers. This naturally led to our providing portfolio management services to intermediaries as we were the first in Ireland to work with both Dimensional Fund Advisers and Vanguard.

“The launch of the first independent custodian, Conexim Advisers, has meant that the conditions are now perfect for a transition of adviser businesses from upfront commissions to client-centered Financial Planning.

“At the same time, our own portfolio management service had also grown significantly and the business was constrained by the simple fact that we were finding it increasingly difficult to efficiently service more clients on an advisory mandate. We needed a scaleable way to provide bespoke customised portfolios.

“I’m an efficient markets kind of guy so I plugged into Google a few choice frustrations we were having running our business and PortfolioMetrix literally popped up at the top of the list. I took one look at Wealth Explorer, their proprietary client engagement tool, and we immediately entered into discussions to launch the service in Ireland. It really is that good.”

The Dublin office will be offering Irish advisers and their clients Euro Portfolios and also offers access to Euro funds for UK based advisers with clients requiring investment options outside of Sterling.