Independent asset manager Church House Investment Management has hired James MacDonald-Smith as client director.

MacDonald-Smith joins from Lloyds Private Banking where he helped set up a team looking after Lloyds’ ultra high net worth clients. Before Lloyds, he was a director at  the wealth and investment management division of Barclays for fourteen years, latterly running a team of private bankers as well as chairing the investment committee and weekly meeting for the UHNW/HNW private bankers.

Church House is an independent asset manager focused exclusively on the provision of wealth management services to the wealthy individual, family and trust. It was established in 1999 to enhance the investment offering for Church House Trust private banking clients; its level of AuM is unpublished but is believed to be around £500 million ($780 million) at March 2012.