Carpenter joins Psigma to launch Birmingham office

PSIGMA Investment Management has opened its first regional office in Birmingham.

Toby Carpenter, formerly head of private clients at Charles Stanley, has been appointed to head the London-based investment advisers’ expansion drive in the city.

Psigma was established in 2002 and is part of the Punter Southall Group, a financial services business offering independent financial and actuarial advice, institutional and private client investment services.

The group employs 850 people across the UK and opened its Birmingham office in 2001. It now has eight wealth managers in the city and an actuarial team of 25. Carpenter will be based at Punter Southall’s One Colmore Row base.

At Psigma, he will manage private client, charity and pension portfolios, with values from £250,000, working directly with clients and with Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) from around the region.

Carpenter suggest wealth managers in Birmingham currently have between £6-7bn of private client investment funds under management.

He said: “Our local presence means we are positioned to capitalise on the shake-up of the industry with our robust, risk-focused investment process.”

John Howard-Smith, chief executive of Psigma, said: “Toby’s appointment and wealth of experience will give us greater exposure in the West Midlands and marks an important step in Psigma’s ambitious regional expansion plans, following ten years of successive growth.”