26 BUSINESS & COMMUNITY CITYWIRE WEALTH MANAGER • 29 NOVEMBER 2018

SELIN BUCAK sbucak@citywire.co.uk

Get your hands dirty,’ is the advice

Charlotte Aspinall, head of investment

management at Hurley Partners, gives

newcomers to the industry.

Aspinall and Julie Sebastianelli, a director in the

financial planning team, are both partners at Hurley

Partners, but they have taken very different paths

to get to where they are today. However, the pair

agree that one of the most important things to

being successful in wealth management is

understanding all the parts of the business, both

from an operational standpoint and from a client

service angle.

‘Get involved as much as you can in all aspects,’

Aspinall says. ‘From a client’s point of view, they

want excellent quality investment advice, but they

also want to make sure their income payments are

made, their stocks are transferred and their portfolio

is run as efficiently as possible. You should get to

know every aspect of the investment management

operation. As much as you can. For the young

person, I would just say, get stuck in!’

Sebastianelli adds: ‘It’s a people business, so I

think, often in big organisations, people become

very protective of their own clients – that can be a

danger. It is a people business, but it’s about

ensuring you get into the detail and understand not

just the investment side but the more personal

financial planning side. If you can do those, it’s

a winner.’

Financial planning

Sebastianelli was part of the team that set up Hurley

Partners in 2013. After starting her career at Pearl

Assurance as a graduate trainee, she moved to

Hogg Robinson Benefit Consultants as a pension

consultant in 1987.

Hurley Partners duo on how they made

it to the top

27BUSINESS & COMMUNITYCITYWIRE WEALTH MANAGER • 29 NOVEMBER 2018

CHARLOTTE ASPINALL

2017 – PRESENT Hurley Partners Head of investment management

2000 – 2016Charles Stanley Investment manager

1999 – 2000The Fairmount Group Investment administrator

JULIE SEBASTIANELLI

2014 – PRESENTHurley Partners Director/shareholder

2007 – 2013 Brown Shipley Private client director

1989 – 2007 Deloitte/Arthur Andersen/Binder Hamlyn Private client director

1987 – 1989 Hogg Robinson Benefit Consultants Pensions consultant

1985 – 1987Pearl Assurance Graduate Trainee

‘At the time, there was a lot of change in

pensions. With the introduction of personal

pensions, it was a very interesting time,’

she recalls.

When the company decided to move to

Peterborough, she felt it was time for her to

move on, and she joined Binder Hamlyn in

1989. She stayed with that business through

all of its guises, as it was taken over by

Arthur Andersen and, finally, Deloitte, until

2007. She met Tony Hurley, chair of Hurley

Partners, while she was there as a client.

Hurley then brought her over to Brown

Shipley, where she stayed until the team left

to set up Hurley Partners.

‘I think the traditional insurance company

route had a lot of plus points in terms of

getting people saving,’ she says.

‘But the transparency and openness of

investments now is very different. People now

have more choice and more education. It was

a very different environment in those days.

‘That said, I went through that change.

Arthur Andersen was a fantastic period of my

career. But as time moved on, you became

aware that the business of Arthur Andersen

and the big four is so varied and enormous

and geared towards corporate clients.’

She adds: ‘I was a small part of a private

client practice. You become quite aware that

your business is quite niche in that

environment. [It is very different] moving to a

firm where this is our business, we do what

we want, and we can arrange the business

how we want it. The strategy is ours and how

we implement it is down to us. Whereas

within a large organisation that becomes

quite difficult to do.'

Hurley Partners is celebrating its fifth

anniversary, having grown assets to £625

million. It is in the black, with pre-tax profit up

271% over the year to April to £1.1 million on

turnover of £5.6 million.

Sebastianelli specialises in financial

planning, investment management and

advising clients on their pensions.

She says that the majority of Hurley’s

clients have some kind of pension

'For me, it is about knowing the family and the personal relationship. We’ve tended to find that when there is a death in the family, we very often already know the next generation. Our clients will introduce us to their sons and daughters'

BUSINESS & COMMUNITY28 CITYWIRE WEALTH MANAGER • 29 NOVEMBER 2018

arrangement through either a Sipp or Ssas,

and inter-generational wealth transfers are

important for retaining assets.

‘For me, it is about knowing the family and

the personal relationship. We’ve tended to

find that when there is a death in the family,

we very often already know the next

generation. Our clients will introduce us to

their sons and daughters,’ she says.

‘We get to know the family and that’s really

important in our view. It’s that nurturing and

personal relationship. Generally speaking, we

tend not to lose a lot of assets at the point

where mum and dad might have passed on.’

In addition to Sipps and Ssas, and the transfer

of wealth down the generations, Sebastianelli

and the team also work on helping clients with

final salary pension transfers.

She says that although final salary pensions

are still rightly regarded as a ‘gold-plated

pension arrangement', for those who need

additional flexibility, a transfer can be the

right answer.

‘It’s complex advice – it has to be done

properly. We believe we do that really well,’

she says.

The pair believe the key differentiator for

Hurley when giving advice is that the financial

planners work closely together at all stages of

the process.

Sebastianelli adds: ‘In a lot of organisations,

the investment manager sits very separately

from the financial planner, and the financial

planner dips in and out. The way we operate

is we both see our clients together.’

Investment management

Aspinall’s road to Hurley Partners was quite

different to Sebastianelli’s. After graduating

from Leeds University with a degree in

business management and sociology, she

joined The Fairmount Group as an

investment administrator. From there, she

went to work at Charles Stanley as an

investment manager in 2000. She was

recruited by Hurley in 2017.

‘I was ready for a new challenge and was

looking to work for a smaller company where

you are involved in all aspects. You really do

get to know clients, and we are not product

driven. We don’t just use funds, we also have

the ability to use direct equities,’ she says.

‘We have freedom and flexibility, we’re not

limited the way some other houses can be.

We definitely feel part of the team and the

company. The hard work you put in is

reflected in the success of the company.’

As part of her day-to-day role, Aspinall is

one of five members of the investment policy

committee, where the asset allocation

decisions are made.

Aspinall says the team is not looking to

make any tactical investment changes over

the next 12 months.

‘We don’t run the portfolio that way – we try

to dampen down the macro noise,’

she explains.

‘It’s very shifting sands at the moment.

What we have always done is to look at

companies which are cash generative and we

feel have good asset backing.’

Currently, the portfolios are overweight

industrials, which Aspinall is quick to point out

encompasses a wide range of companies, such

as BBA Aviation and engineering firm Renishaw.

‘Those companies really tick the boxes of

what we are looking for. They don’t tend to

make that many moves when the winds are

blowing around.’

She adds: ‘We have been hurt a little of

late, but we feel those companies, especially

with their asset backing, will be good

long-term investments. It’s quite rare we

would have a start-up software company [in

our portfolios], for example.’

Direct portfolios typically have around 25 to

28 holdings, with Aspinall saying that any more

than that will be ‘a bit of a scattergun’ approach.

In fixed income, she is keeping portfolios

short duration and with just 20-25% exposure

to high yield.

‘We want it to be defensive.

Geographically, we are in line with the

benchmark, but we do have a call on US and

Asia. We are underweight the US and

overweight Asia, which I think reflects our

long-term view. If we were short-term, we

would be shifting that around.

'With Asia, they will have the headwinds

with raw materials and trade wars, but the

demographics there are really compelling.

That will feed through to consumer demand.’

All the partners in the business also invest

their money alongside their clients.

Aspinall and Sebastianelli both point out

that it is very important for clients to know

they are all ‘in it together’. l

The Hurley investment approachCharlotte Aspinall and Julie Sebastianelli

Hurley Partners offers clients a flexible approach to implementing investment mandates, and we

always try and cater for their preferences in meeting their objectives. Some clients prefer our

collectives-based approach, and indeed we use funds to provide both our global equity and fixed

income exposure where we see the obvious benefits of diversification and the specific local

expertise they afford. When it comes to UK equities, however, we find the majority of our clients

prefer to utilise our extensive experience in this area through the direct equity route.

For the UK, we employ an unconstrained approach with high levels of conviction, investing in

approximately 30 stocks within our equity allocations. Our stock selection criteria focuses on

companies with strong cash generation and balance sheets, and where they also have potential

for growth and margin improvement that might be underappreciated. We have always included

smaller companies in our universe, and this is an area that has added value in the past five years.

This knowledge of smaller companies has also driven the successful management of our AIM

portfolio, offering our clients the opportunity – where appropriate – to access this aspect of

inheritance tax planning.

This year has been characterised by market volatility. We do not believe in trying to position our

portfolios for short-term headwinds. Instead, we prefer to focus on the long-term prospects for

companies where we see value and growth opportunities.

Equity exposure

Total Return

Dynamic 100% 44.4%

Growth 85% 36.4%

Medium Balanced 70% 36.7%

ARC Equity Risk 80-110% 44.7%

ARC Growth 60-80% 38.3%

ARC Balanced 40-60% 28%

Portfolio performance From 1/9/13 to 31/8/18

Source: Hurley/Bloomberg/ARC

29BUSINESS & COMMUNITYCITYWIRE WEALTH MANAGER • 29 NOVEMBER 2018