Asset management giant Schroders saw a five-fold increase in profits from its wealth management joint ventures in 2024, according to its latest financial results.

Schroders’ joint ventures include its Schroders Personal Wealth brand run in partnership with the Lloyds Banking Group.

The firm reported £21.3m of profit after tax for its wealth management joint ventures in 2024, with its share of profits at £10.5m. This is a considerable rise year in year with wealth management joint ventures in 2023 seeing just £4.1m in profit after tax.

Schroders’ wealth management associates and joint ventures reported net inflows of £0.4bn, taking their assets to £15.7bn at the end of 2024.

Schroders’ wealth management businesses also include Cazenove Capital and Financial Planning firm Benchmark.

Schroders’ wealth management business saw net inflows of £6.3bn, along with an additional £2.4bn added to assets under management via acquisitions. The wealth management arm ended 2024 with £126.8bn in assets under management.

The majority of Schroders’ wealth management client base was in the affluent sector, with 40% of the firm’s wealth AUM being held by clients with under £1m in assets.

The asset manager also set out its three-year plan in today’s financial results.

The asset manager said that it planned to grow assets under management in its wealth management business by 5%-7% per year between 2025 and 2027.

In its strategy document Schroders said that one of the ways it planned to do this was by making further acquisitions. It also plans to replatform its technology in Cazenove Capital.

The asset manager recently appointed former JP Morgan banker Oliver Gregson as CEO of wealth management to replace Mary-Anne Daly, who will step back from her full-time responsibilities at the end of June to make time for other interests.

Mr Gregson’s appointment will be effective from 2 June, subject to regulatory approval.

The three year plans also included delivering £150m of annualised net cost savings, with £20m in run-rate savings already delivered in the first quarter of this year. The asset manager said the cost savings would provide a strong platform to drive growth.

Richard Oldfield, group CEO of Schroders, said: “Today, we are setting out a clear plan to return to profitable growth, with ambitious new three-year targets.

"We will re-focus on our considerable areas of strength and have a firm grip on our challenges. Our transformation plan is underway, and will benefit not just our shareholders, but also our people and, most importantly, our clients. We have a strong balance sheet and will deploy our resources and capital rigorously.

“In an era of highly-concentrated and volatile markets, our active, forward-thinking and agile approach optimises the risk-return-cost equation. We are unashamed advocates of the power of active management to address our clients’ complex needs.”

Schroders’ total business saw net outflows of £4.7bn for the year ended 31 December. However the outflows were considerably outweighed by positive investment returns which took the firm’s total assets under management to £778.7bn at the end of the year, a rise of 4% year-on-year.

The asset management arm of the business saw net outflows of £17.1bn, with overall assets under management rising slightly to £535bn due to positive investment returns. The majority of the outflows came from its solutions business, with the solutions products seeing £28bn in gross outflows in the second half of the 2024 alone.