The gradual disruption of the wealth management industry

Wealth management is in the main a very traditional industry – with traditionally high and unacceptably opaque charges. But that is slowly changing, says Merryn Somerset Webb.

Piles of pound coins © Getty Images

(Image credit: Piles of pound coins © Getty Images)

Last week, wealth manager Charles Stanley sponsored a supplement published with some of the papers. It wasn't awful there was some stuff about the social and environmental impacts of investing, as well as the usual warnings about how important it is to get good financial advice and how if you want a "happy and fulfilled retirement" you'd be wise to get on the phone to Charles Stanley ASAP.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.