By David Chaplin

Copyright investmentnews

Mercer head of investment solutions, Brian Kearney, has left the asset consultant and multi-manager firm to join the newly named Shaw & Partners NZ business.

It is understood Kearney, who has been with Mercer NZ since 2018, will take on implemented consulting duties at Shaws – known as JMI Wealth until last week.

Prior to setting up shop in NZ as an independent consultant, he held several advisory and actuarial roles in the UK for Watson Wyatt, Lucida and SECOR Asset Management.

JMI was slated to take on the new brand after parent firm, Investment Services Group (ISG), sold a 75 per cent stake for $67.5 million to the long-established Australian wealth manager, Shaw & Partners, in June this year.

Shaws – itself fully-owned by Swiss private bank, EFG Partners – reported about $47 billion under advice including the $7.5 billion of assets managed by various ISG entities such as JMI, Devon Funds, Tahito and Select Wealth.

According to an ISG statement, the tie-up with Shaws Australia would enable the wealth advisory group “to offer an experience for clients that will be unrivalled in the New Zealand market”.

“And while it is significant to retire the longstanding name of JMI Wealth, the dedication, expertise, and client-focused approach for which JMI Wealth is known will continue under the Shaw and Partners banner.”

Shaws NZ has 14 financial advisers in a network headed by Jason Watson. The group also houses several investment specialists such as former AMP Capital NZ head of investments, Michael Gray, along with directors Alan Lee and Andrew Kelleher – the latter two both part of the seminal local asset consulting house, JMIS (originally, Jarden Morgan Investment Services).

JMIS was bundled up in the Paul Glass-founded ISG pre-cursor firm in 2016.

The JMI KiwiSaver scheme would also adopt the Shaws brand, pending paperwork, Kelleher said.

Kearney will add to the asset consulting heft of Shaws NZ, which offers a number of wholesale and investment advisory services including to ISG sister discretionary investment management service (DIMS) brand, Select Wealth.

Mercer NZ has been through a number of changes this year with long-time chief, Martin Lewington, resigning effective the end of June.

His replacement, former Smart chief, Anna Scott, formally takes up the role this week.

As reported last month, Mercer is also amid a major makeover of its core global shares fund in a shift to a triple factor-based model from a fundamental active multi-manager style. Current core international equities managers on the Mercer panel include Arrowstreet, Maj Invest, Schroders, Wellington and Baille Gifford.

During the last 12 months or so, Mercer NZ has been through some structural changes, too, with the holding company switching from a local-domiciled entity to Marsh Mercer Holdings Australia: the US-listed Marsh McLennan is the ultimate owner of Mercer globally.

In September last year, Mercer NZ also named MUFG Pension & Market Services (formerly Link) as registrar in place of BNP Paribas – although the latter remains as custodian.

Since taking over the former AMP Capital NZ fund suite from Macquarie in 2022 in a no-cash deal, Mercer has made several underlying manager and product changes as well.

For instance, Salt was removed from an Australasian equities mandate last December – ending a long-standing mandate for the boutique (now part of Alvarium).

Apart from renaming a bunch of products in the line-up, Mercer has shuttered several of the Macquarie inheritance including an NZ shares strategy last year and, more recently, the Global Income Opportunities and Australian Shares funds.