“It’s a new initiative for us and will probably get going in the early part of next year.”
It seems the entrepreneurial traits honed at Eden and City Financial have stayed with him, although he admits the “entrepreneurial journey… is not for the faint-hearted”.
“I felt Smith & Williamson had all the elements I liked, it was a growth mandate for a start which at M&G I loved, the entrepreneurial flair and opportunity was there through Eden and City Financial, with the backing of a really substantial, long-standing parent that does nothing but encourage you to make decisions you believe in.
“That’s the challenge with some of the bigger companies, you want to do stuff and it can be difficult,” he suggests, hinting at why he left M&G.
But he reveals: “The truth is I absolutely loved the whole journey of M&G from 1992 to 2010 because a lot of it, in fact most of it, was being given a mandate to build something. The pivotal moment of course was when the Pru took over M&G in 1999 and I was asked by Michael [McLintock, former chief executive] to lead the integration of the fund management businesses there – no one was more surprised than me.”
When asked about what challenges he faces at S&W, Mr Rosengarten acknowledges he worries about creating the right atmosphere at the firm.
“Culture is probably the wrong word, just the work environment for people. It’s a friendly environment – S&W is delightful in that way. And why do I worry about that? Because you want to make sure you hang onto the fund managers. We’ve seen it time and time again in this industry, it’s really difficult to hang onto managers if you’ve got it wrong,” he says.
Having poached a few fund managers himself in his current role, he should know.
This feeds in to Mr Rosengarten’s belief that S&W should not see itself as a specialist player.
“At the same time we’ve got a unit that has its own identity,” he adds.
“Some call us a boutique, I don’t mind that. Boutiques can conjure up a single-strategy approach, which has been very successful for some. But that’s not us, we’ve not pursued that approach, we want some breadth.”
