I would also like to extend my thanks to Investec for their partnership throughout this process. As a major shareholder in Rathbones following the transaction, Investec has continued to be a constructive and supportive partner. Our collaboration has been grounded in a shared ambition to build a business with greater long-term competitive advantages for clients. I am excited by the opportunities we can capture together as key strategic partners.
Despite a challenging and uncertain economic backdrop in the UK, we remain focused on the factors within our control: enhancing client engagement, looking after our talent, simplifying our operations, creating a more commercially effective business, and strengthening our brand.
Structural trends such as demographic change, intergenerational wealth transfer, and low investment participation in the UK continue to create a substantial long-term opportunity.
Financial review
Rathbones delivered a resilient financial performance in 2025, reflecting both the inherent strength of our diversified business and the successful integration of IW&I. Despite a difficult first half for markets, FUMA increased 5.9% to £115.6 billion by year-end. Synergy delivery exceeded expectations, contributing £76 million on an annualised run-rate basis, significantly above our £60 million target and supporting growth in underlying profitability. Statutory profit before tax rose 53.5% to £152.9 million, benefiting not only from these synergies but also from a sharp reduction in integration costs, while underlying profit before tax rose 4.6% to £238.1 million.
We maintained strong capital discipline throughout the year, commencing our first ever share buyback of £50 million. This provides a solid foundation as we move into 2026, enabling us to invest with confidence in our operating platform, our people and our client proposition. With the integration behind us and further efficiency gains already identified, we are well positioned to deliver strong long-term value for clients and shareholders.
Building on our strengths
Rathbones is a business with momentum. Our trusted client relationships provide a resilient foundation and a source of future growth. They enable us to deepen engagement, support clients across more aspects of their financial lives, and benefit from strong advocacy through referrals, which continue to be our most significant source of new business. Our enhanced scale strengthens our ability to invest in areas that differentiate us and build competitive advantage, from our investment process and client proposition to our people and our technology.
As part of my review of our senior leadership team, I have made a number of new appointments to support the next phase of our growth. This builds on the earlier establishment of the CEO of Wealth role following the retirement of Rupert Baron, and the appointment of Camilla Stowell, who joined Rathbones in June 2025.
I want to extend my sincere thanks to Andy Brodie and Gaynor Gillespie, who are leaving Rathbones to pursue new opportunities, and to Sarah OwenJones and Tony Overy, who are retiring after long and successful careers as Chief Risk Officer and Head of Financial Planning. Each has made an enormous contribution to Rathbones, and I am deeply grateful for their leadership and commitment. I am also pleased to welcome Brad Novak into the newly created role of Chief Technology Officer, Cassandra Williams as Chief Risk Officer, Gillian van Maaren as Chief People Officer, Mike Turner as Chief Operating Officer and Robert Sears as Chief Investment Officer, subject to regulatory approval. Their experience and perspective will help guide us forward and we now have a refreshed and energised executive team with deep expertise and a shared ambition to lead the industry.
Most importantly, our people continue to demonstrate commitment and capability, taking ownership, improving processes, and driving meaningful progress across the organisation.
Our vision and strategic priorities
Our vision is clear: To be the best wealth manager in the UK, by far. Our goals are for Rathbones to be
- The first choice for clients
- The first choice for talent
- The most effective operator
- The most reputable brand
Delivering our strategic priorities
Across Rathbones, we have launched a comprehensive programme of initiatives to support our strategic ambitions. Many of these actions are already underway and will continue into 2026 and beyond, reflecting our commitment to sustained progress and long-term value creation.
1. The first choice for clients
We want every decision at Rathbones to begin with a single question: how does this help our client? This principle has been guided by the time I have spent with clients over the past six months, giving me direct insight into what they value and where we can do better. I have also experienced Rathbones from the other side, as a client, an investor in RAM’s funds, and a shareholder. This provides a personal perspective on both our strengths and the areas where we must continue to improve.
This client-centric perspective also shapes a series of targeted initiatives to elevate the client experience and deliver an exceptional proposition that combines investment excellence, comprehensive service, and an effortless journey. In a competitive market, we know clients have choices, and we are determined to earn their trust and loyalty.
Our initiatives focus on three areas:
- A world-class investment capability across Wealth and Asset Management: built on discipline, judgement and truly active decision-making. In Wealth, our investment framework focuses on long-term compounding through investing in quality businesses at attractive valuations, supported by thoughtful diversification, prudent risk management and dynamic positioning for changing market conditions. In Asset Management, small empowered teams make high-conviction decisions backed by strong institutional oversight and robust risk systems.
- Advice and solutions honed for the entire client lifecycle: Financial planning represents a growth opportunity, with current penetration at 14% of FUM across the group. Increasing this will help reduce outflows, deepen relationships and strengthen continuity through life events and wealth transfer. By embedding planning more consistently we can deliver better outcomes for clients while supporting sustainable net organic growth.
- A proactive, personalised and effortless service experience: We are continuing to build trusted, longstanding client relationships and investing in technology that complements, rather than replaces, our people-first approach. Our evolving hybrid model offers clients convenient self-service options alongside personalised advice, supporting satisfaction, retention, and responsiveness to evolving client preferences.
2. The first choice for talent
Our people are the foundation of our success. To attract, develop, and retain exceptionally talented people, we are focused on nurturing:
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A great culture: Our culture, defined by client commitment, long-term stewardship, collaboration and care, remains a core strength. But to support the next phase of growth, we need to balance these qualities with greater accountability and sharper ways of working. This is why we are reinforcing a culture built on clarity and simplification, pace and intent, effective collaboration, and stronger advancement, recognition and reward. Equally important is creating an environment where colleagues are continually developed, ensuring our most talented people grow, progress and stay engaged.
A key enabler of this will be the Rathbones Institute, launching in 2027. The Institute will provide a unified and scalable approach to professional, technical and leadership development, helping colleagues build the skills and confidence needed to deliver excellent client outcomes. It will also provide the structured challenge and career pathways that high-performing colleagues expect. By investing in our people in this structured way, we are creating the foundations for a culture that empowers colleagues and accelerates performance.
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Motivating incentives: At the start of 2026 we introduced a new remuneration scheme for investment managers and financial planners that is simple, transparent and formula driven. It aligns reward to the right behaviours and supports sustainable growth.
Alongside this, the new Rathbones Growth Unit Scheme extends incentives to colleagues in our Enablement functions, providing share-based rewards over three years tied to improvements in net flows within our Wealth business and reinforcing shared ownership across the organisation.
Together, these changes create a clear, consistent and motivating framework that supports growth and aligns everyone behind our ambition.
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AI-powered tools and processes to make doing business easy: We are focused on improving the client and employee experience by embedding AI into the fabric of how we operate. Our clients value human connection: trusted advice, judgement during volatility, and support through major life decisions. AI enhances this and is already embedded across some of the platforms colleagues use every day. Copilot is now enterprise-wide, helping teams draft, summarise and analyse more effectively. In the front office, AI is improving the efficiency of production of suitability notes and strengthening advice oversight. And in our data and client experience platforms, AI is giving us cleaner data and faster insight into what clients are thinking and feeling. The next phase will be about further implementation of AI into core workflows alongside other tools.
By modernising and simplifying our systems and processes, supported by AI-powered tools, we are creating an environment where teams can focus on what matters most: serving clients and growing the business.
3. The most effective operator
To deliver sustainable, scalable growth, we are strengthening the effectiveness and resilience of our operations through:
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Data-led commercial excellence: We are using data much more systematically to strengthen client outcomes, improve retention and drive sustainable growth. By analysing where the strongest opportunities lie, we are reshaping client-facing teams to improve productivity and efficiency, providing more targeted support across the client lifecycle, and increasing introductions to financial planning. This sharper, insight-led approach is helping us convert demand from both existing and new clients.
We are applying the same discipline to reducing outflows. Data now gives us a clearer view of assets at risk and the interventions most likely to make a difference. This includes expanding financial planning, increasing the frequency of high-quality client touchpoints, and refining our At Retirement proposition to better meet client needs. This approach is already helping us strengthen long-term relationships and enhance the quality and consistency of client engagement.
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Simplified operations: As we work toward streamlining our internal operations, we have expanded our relationship with Salesforce. During 2026, we will bring client lifecycle and relationship management together on a single platform using Salesforce and Xplan, replacing existing systems, including InvestCloud. While previous systems delivered certain benefits, this unified approach will deliver greater impact, simplify workflows, reduce post-integration inefficiencies, and free up time for investment managers and financial planners to focus on clients and growth.
We are also moving to a more integrated and efficient operating model. A key example is the consolidation of Greenbank into the broader Rathbones structure: its stewardship and sustainability expertise has been integrated into the Asset Management segment, while its research team has joined the central research function. At the same time, we are streamlining our governance to enable faster decision-making by significantly reducing both the number of committees and the number of colleagues required to participate in them. These changes will drive efficiency, while enhancing collaboration and effectiveness across the organisation.
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Capital efficiency: Our strong balance sheet and capital surplus give us the flexibility to return excess capital to shareholders while continuing to invest for long-term growth. In 2025 we launched our first £50 million share buyback, an important milestone in our evolving capital framework, which was completed on 16 February 2026. On 27 February 2026, we announced an extension to that programme of up to £20 million, subject to regulatory approval. We are ensuring capital is deployed where it will generate the highest returns while supporting a progressive dividend.
To underpin this, we have strengthened our capital allocation and decision-making approach. Investments are assessed against clear return thresholds aligned to our strategy and evaluated on both NPV and ROI. We have streamlined governance to speed up decisions, increased monitoring to ensure delivery of expected benefits, and reinforced a readiness to pivot when needed. This more rigorous and transparent framework increases our conviction, reduces decision risk and ensures capital supports growth where Rathbones can create the most value.
4. The most reputable brand
Rathbones is a brand with heritage, trust, and substance.
- A relevant and distinctive identity: We are committed to building a brand that is recognised for consistent, unconflicted delivery of client outcomes and superior standards of service. Our modern visual identity and accessible, trusted content strengthens approachability and ensures our brand resonates and stands out.
- Demonstrating leadership and purpose: Building on our ethical origins and responsible business heritage, we aim to build trust with stakeholders, becoming a recognised force for good through our financial education and social mobility activities, our responsible investment thought leadership and our engagement with policy makers, among others.
- Efficient amplification to our core audiences: We are building visibility through an integrated media and digital ecosystem, improving discoverability, expanding PR and sponsorship activity, and reinforcing our reputation through strong social proof, including excellent Trustpilot ratings and a growing share of positive media coverage.
Measuring our progress
We have established a clear set of measures to track progress across clients, talent, operations and brand. These measures capture the quality of our investment performance, the depth of our client relationships, the strength of our culture and employee experience, and the effectiveness of our operating model. We also track the impact of our brand and reputation, together with core financial indicators that reflect sustainable growth. Taken together, this balanced and transparent suite of metrics reinforces accountability and ensures we stay focused on delivering the outcomes that matter most for clients, colleagues and shareholders.
Looking ahead
We are competing from a position of real strength in an attractive and growing market. The opportunities ahead of us are significant, and we have the scale, expertise and ambition to capture them. With an energised leadership team and talented colleagues across the organisation, I am confident in our ability to deliver excellent outcomes for our clients and for our shareholders.
I would like to again thank all colleagues across Rathbones for their hard work, dedication and resilience, particularly through the IW&I integration. Your commitment has been the driving force behind our progress, and it will continue to underpin the success we build together.
