Wealth Adviser Profile: Lee Smythe

Offices certainly come in all shapes and sizes and after a week that has taken in the super-modern base of Sarasin, with its spectacular views of St Paul’s, the Grosvenor Street headquarters of Killik Chartered Financial Planners is a stark contrast.

A stunning Beaux-Arts mansion in a fashionable part of Mayfair, which once served as the Japanese embassy, its history is as rich as its carpets are deep. Originally two Georgian houses, the buildings were converted into a single residence in the early part of the last century by the colourful financier Sir Edgar Speyer. He was a well-known City grandee and a member of the privy council until he left these shores for the US under a cloud amid suspicions he had been trading with the enemy during the First World War. Speyer was also a major patron of the arts and counted Claude Debussy, Edward Elgar and Richard Strauss among his friends.

His taste was certainly flamboyant and many of his opulent touches remain today. The striking carved wooden staircase that greets you is a case in point and the lobby is beautifully appointed, with oak-panelled walls but with a Reuters terminal flickering away in the corner as a reminder that you are in the twenty-first century. Killik has been there since 2000.

Killik Chartered Financial Planners is the advisory arm of the financial services group, headed by Lee Smythe, who is both managing director and a partner at the firm.

In an industry that is typically dominated by men in their fifties, he might be seen as something of an exception at 35 years of age. However, he has already amassed 15 years’ experience in the industry, having worked for several leading players in both the banking and pension consultancy markets.

This has given him a broad and deep insight into the advice market, as he has worked with everyone from low-income households to large corporate clients.

Smythe started out at Prudential as a consultant selling savings and pensions plans to less affluent individuals before moving to The Woolwich as an IFA. He then joined Aon Consulting, but only briefly as it then became Momentum in a management buyout.

‘I was not very happy because I wanted to work for a large company and the MBO happened just after I joined,’ he says.

Still on the pensions beat, Smythe jumped ship to Hymans Robertson, which gave him an excellent grounding in the group and executive pensions market, before moving to Killik.

The firm may be best known as a stockbroker but it has a burgeoning financial advisory arm that services clients ranging from wealthy individuals to a range of companies on the pensions side.