Polin leaves legacy issues behind to pour £50k into Ashcourt Rowan

Jonathan Polin has underlined his faith Ashcourt Rowan can overcome its recent reputational damage by buying by nearly £50,000 worth of shares in the firm.

An announcement posted on the London Stock Exchange yesterday afternoon revealed the wealth firm’s chief executive had bought 31,645 shares at 158p each. The move lifts his total interest to 231,645 shares, worth £366,000, and accounting for a little less than 1% of the firm.   

Polin told Wealth Manager: 'Today is the first opportunity I have had, now we are out of our closed period, demonstrated a good set of interim results and cleaned up some of legacy issues to demonstrate my huge belief in the unparalleled opportunity Ashcourt Rowan has in the sector. I am a believer in investing in what we are doing and re-stating that belief with my own money.'

The trade came on the same day Ashcourt was hit with a £412,000 fine from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for legacy issues relating to Savoy Investment Management before it was brought under the Ashcourt umbrella.

The regulator said it had found some 23% of portfolios run out of the division to be at ‘high risk’ of unsuitability. 'Savoy allowed its managers a high degree of discretion to advise its wealth management clients in their investment portfolios. It had limited front office controls and its other processes failed to ensure the suitability of its advice and portfolio management,' the FSA said.

In an exclusive interview with Wealth Manager in reaction to the fine Polin, who was appointed chief executive of Ashcourt 14 months ago, revealed the penalty was in relation to a section 166 order which he admitted he only found out about a couple of days into the job. 

Polin made it clear he was addressing the issue. 'The world has moved on and I have taken pretty hard remedial action on that business. It was key for me to clean up that business. We have made significant changes.’

He also warned there could be a flurry of 166 orders in the pipeline in relation to legacy and ‘old fashioned’ business models.