Wealth Manager Profile: Rupert Robinson

When the time came to make the break, Robinson admits it was a huge wrench. After all, he got his big break when he moved to Rothschild’s private client business in 1987, and made his name developing its multi-asset proposition, which eventually became a £1 billion single-service multi-manager proposition. ‘I grew that business for five years and loved every minute of it,’ he says.

After being introduced to Michael Dobson, Robinson joined his start up ultra-high net worth boutique Beaufont Capital, along with another Wealth Manager cover star Sally Tennant, which was acquired by Schroders in 2002. He says: ‘It was a time when markets had turned down and we needed to grow the top line so it became a vision and aspiration for me.’

When not leading from the front, Robinson services
a diverse international client base, which stretch from Italy Germany and Spain, across to the Caribbean, the Middle East and Singapore. Each client has a minimum of one quarterly meeting, which can involve boards
of trustees, or can sometimes be conference calls.

His mandates vary from global fixed income, to currency and absolute return funds, to multi asset class portfolios.

When he is not in internal meetings or travelling around Europe, he attends dinners that he hosts up and down the UK twice a year, organised by David Biddle, one of his two business development co-heads. He jokes: ‘I talk about our investment strategies and try to make them laugh, which is not so easy at the moment.’

Easy or not, Robinson is proud of the £500 million of new business earned by the private bank last year.

When he is away from work, Robinson can often be found glued to his BlackBerry, checking the latest cricket or football scores. Hailing from west London,
he has a soft spot for Queens Park Rangers, although professes a love of Liverpool FC.

His keen interest in sport stems from his school days, when he captained his cricket, rugby and football teams. All are still high on his list of favourite sports, alongside golf, tennis, and skiing.

He confesses that his teenage son and daughter are more predisposed towards sales and acting than a career in private banking, and he spends as many weekends as possible with his wife and family at his Cotswold cottage.

His one regret, he says, is finding it hard to switch
off. But when he eventually does, his clients will be heartened to know that even then, he will have his BlackBerry close by in case they really need him.