The bespoke service, which is set to become active in May and will be delivered by Pershing, will target private clients and companies seeking to deposit lump sums above a £750,000 threshold.
The service is EQ’s latest offering alongside its mid-to-upper-mid model portfolio range – which is aimed at clients in the £200,000-£1m bracket – and is set to be followed by the launch of EQ Direct, due in “the next few months” and targeting clients with £15,000 or more.
Joining the ranks of the top-end operation are five former Tilney Bestinvest employees and one from Quilter Cheviot, all due to assume their positions at service launch.
Arriving from Bestinvest are Mike Neumann, Andrew Rees, Katharine Lindley, Sophie Muller and Kate West, while Daniel Bland will move over from Quilter Cheviot.
Neumann, Bland and Rees were investment managers in their former roles and will take up similar berths at EQ, while Lindley, Muller and West join as director of financial planning, associate director and fund research analyst, and senior investment administrator respectively.
John Spiers, CEO of EQ, said: “EQ Investors is built around delivering clients’ long-term investment needs and this new service can play an important role in allowing customers to build a portfolio that is customised to their needs.
“What we were lacking were client-facing investors. We had a couple of guys running our model portfolios, but they needed more support so we have doubled the investment research team from three to six and brought in client-facing investment managers to run the bespoke service.”
