SIR RICHARD BRANSON reaches for the skies - Mayfair Times

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business
was also on the board of Lord Rothschild’s company – stepped down from the
board of BAT, and Wilson later resigned on a point of principle.
“Jacob Rothschild had always said, ‘you’ll fall out with BAT one day and if you
want backing, I’ll back you’,” Wilson recalls. “Mark came out of retirement and we
started as J Rothschild Assurance on January 1, 1992.”
Wilson was initially chief executive of J Rothschild Assurance. Five years later he
was appointed to the board of the parent company, St James’s Place Capital, as
chief executive and in 2004 he became chairman.
“People call us a virtual company,” Wilson says. “When we started I read a book
called The Age of Unreason by Charles Handy and it said that companies of the
future would focus on where management could give added value and outsource
the rest. So one Monday when we were on gardening leave, I went to Mark – we
were doing our business plan – and said I think we ought to contract out our back
office, contract our investment management and concentrate on designing products
and distribution. He looked at me as if I’d been on something over the weekend and
I said, read the book first.”
St James’s Place now has 1,200 “partners” – wealth managers with an average
experience of 15-16 years. Between them, they have 400,000-plus clients and St
James’s Place has some breathtaking financial statistics.
In the year ending December 31, 2007, the group’s operating profit was £244.7
million (up 39 per cent on the previous year), with new business profits of £150.9
million (up 31 per cent). And the group has had “four really good years on the trot”.
This year might be a little more challenging, and Wilson is unphased.
“People think I’m peculiar on this one,” he says softly, “but I might as well be
honest, I love a tough year more than an easy year. When things are just rolling
in and everyone is doing well, you never know how much is due to management
or just the market going your way. I love a tough market, it’s more stimulating
and challenging.”
When I suggest that the rich probably need the help of a wealth manager more in
a tough market than in an easy one, Wilson replies: “I believe they do, I genuinely
believe they do. The irony is that I believe people will look back on 2008 and say, I
wish I’d invested money in 2008. But we all know what happens, they wait until the
market recovers. Buy high-quality shares now, you’re not going to regret it, but
people are inclined to sit on their hands.”
That’s something Wilson will never do. His job as chairman takes one and a half
days to two days a week, he reckons, but he works five days a week, getting in at
7.30am and leaving at 7.30pm.
In particular, he says, he enjoys leading a sales team “for the reasons other
people dislike it”. The partners are self-employed. They are entrepreneurs. They’re
on commission, and they say exactly what they think.
“The variety of backgrounds is brilliant, it’s a total meritocracy. You stand or fall by
your figures. That appeals to me enormously.”
He adds: “I’m 65 in December. The cut-off point was 60, and then it was
extended to 63 and then 65 and now I’ve got another three years at three days a
week, which is what I wanted.”
And what’s he going to do with his spare time? Well, he’s planning to become a
mentor, a business coach – and any fees he picks up he’ll give to his charitable
trust. “We’ve got a financial adviser who is 77,” he says thoughtfully. “He works three
days a week, and earns over £100,000 every year.”
For some people, age just isn’t an issue.
“When things are just rolling in and everyone
is doing well, you never know how much is
due to management or just the market going
your way . . . I love a tough market, it’s more
stimulating and challenging.”