Close Wealth Management is moving its headquarters out of London to Northwich, Cheshire, in Northern England. The decision was taken followi...

Close Wealth Management is moving its headquarters out of London to Northwich, Cheshire, in Northern England. The decision was taken following the firm’s acquisition of Nelson Money Managers, a Cheshire-based independent financial advisory business. The new Cheshire-based business will be led by Jamie Simmons, who joined the firm in January. Mr Simmons, a former senior private banker at Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland, took over the job from David Pitman, who resigned in March this year. Insiders say Mr Pitman, a former senior Merrill Lynch private client manager whose father is the legendary banker Sir Brian Pitman, the previous chairman and chief executive of Lloyds TSB, was not prepared to relocate to Northwich, which led to his resignation. Mr Simmons told the local press that CWM had ambitious growth plans. "We've taken on 15 new advisors since January, five in the last eight weeks,” he told the Liverpool Echo & Daily Post, a Liverpool-based newspaper. He added: "The head office of the business will be moving from London to Northwich and, alongside all the existing Nelson staff, we will be growing the employee base as we fulfil the improvements in customer service we plan to make. The business will be based from the North West and we're also making investments in property and IT systems here." Nelson recently closed its office in Tarvin near Chester, after losing staff to newly-established rival firm JP Morgan Invest, which opened in Liverpool in June. One insider told WealthBriefing the move out of London signifies a change in investment culture of CWM. “Nelson was very much a corporate independent financial advisor firm, selling financial advice to the senior employees of major companies in northern England, whereas CWM was a more sophisticated product under the leadership of someone who had a sharp knowledge of the mass affluent market.” “I would expect the move to the north will see the triumph of the Nelson investment model.” Nelson was set up in 1978 in response to the requests of a number of UK companies, including ICI and Pilkington, wanting retirement advice for its employees. The combined group now manages around 20,000 clients and says it has around £1.3 billion ($2.2 billion) of assets under management. It was acquired by Close Brothers, the parent company of Close Wealth Management, in 2003.