Williams went in too hard at Cofunds

When New Model Adviser® spoke to Williams in February 2009 weeks after he took up his post at Cofunds he was already putting in place a strategic plan for the next three years.

His plan was to liberate advisers and their clients from ‘old-fashioned’ with-profits funds and life assurance bonds. Now, just two years on and Williams gone, maybe he should have looked at updating his ‘old-fashioned’ negotiating skills too.

It was one thing for Williams, who cut his teeth at Selestia, to use the might and scale of Skandia to bully fund managers into paying 90 out of 150 basis points to the industry’s original funds platform.

It was quite another to try the same at Cofunds where fund managers Legal & General, Threadneedle, Jupiter and Prudential are shareholders in the business

It can’t have been positive for board/ shareholder relations to have an over-confident Williams swagger into their offices and demand a bigger slice of the pie and it wouldn’t be surprising if mild-mannered Charlie Eppinger had been brought back as a friendly face to calm the situation.

Wraps may be the doorway through which the financial sales industry becomes an advice profession – but new model or not the power ultimately lies with shareholders who want growth and return on their investment not squabbles over basis points.