Top stockbroker and wealth manager focus on opportunities ahead

ONE of Britain’s best known stockbrokers and a Yorkshire wealth manager teamed up to give investors an insight into the opportunities that lie ahead at an event called ‘Let’s Celebrate Surviving the Recession’.

Justin Urquhart-Stewart of Seven Investment Management spoke at a seminar held by Yvonne Goodwin Wealth Management yesterday which was the first corporate event to be held at the newly refurbished Mansion in Roundhay Park, Leeds.

Sporting his familiar red braces and a red and white spotted tie but with a new beard, Mr Urquhart-Stewart tore into Britain’s banks as not being “fit for purpose” and politicians, criticising them for poor management.

He said that Britain’s banks were now worth “a pin prick” in comparison to their value two years ago and questioned whether the multi-billion Government bank bailout was worth it.

“The way it should have been resolved was to suspend the shares and go in and sort it out at RBS and Lloyds, like what has happened at Northern Rock where a tough character called Gary Hoffman has gone in and the bank is now lending again.”

He also said that BBC Business Editor Robert Peston had not helped matters for “droning on telling us we’re all doomed”.

“Things are going to improve globally,” he told the audience, saying that Britain was entering a period of low growth but predicting that households would start saving again.

“Things are not doomed, just dismayed and delayed considering the coronary that the economy went through.

“I would say don’t panic, but take a longer term view.”

He predicted that the East, led by China, will lead growth while the US economy will recover quicker than the UK and sterling will continue to show weakness.

Yvonne Goodwin, who launched her Leeds-based wealth management business 22 months ago after a career at Yorkshire firm Pearson Jones, told the audience: “It is hard to believe that it’s two years since we saw the first queues at Northern Rock.

“We have stepped up our communication with clients during the recession. We also apply what I call the ‘bin test’. If we don’t understand an investment product within 10 minutes, it goes in the bin. And that is what should have happened to so many of those so-called sophisticated investments.

Tony Davies, of Zurich Bank International also spoke at the event.