Fifteen+ Years. One Discipline: Wealth Management.

Wealth Management Recruitment Specialists

Wealth management is not one market. Financial planning firms, private banks, discretionary investment managers and family offices may serve similar clients, but the people they need, the way they operate and the experience they value can be very different.

Fram Search has recruited across the UK wealth management sector for more than 15 years, from offices in London and Manchester. We work with businesses ranging from independent financial planning firms and specialist investment boutiques to national wealth managers, private banks and consolidators.

Our assignments span senior leadership, financial planning, investment management, operations, compliance, finance, sales and marketing. We recruit both experienced specialists and senior leaders, using retained executive search or contingent recruitment according to the nature of the appointment.

The strongest candidates are frequently not active in the job market. Our approach combines established sector networks with targeted market mapping and direct headhunting, allowing us to reach individuals whose experience closely matches the client, proposition and role.

Whether a business is making a key leadership appointment, building a new team, replacing an experienced adviser or strengthening a specialist function, our focus is on understanding what the appointment needs to achieve rather than simply matching a job title.

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Wealth Management recruitment specialists

Wealth Management Salary Benchmarking – 2026

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Financial Planning Recruitment

Financial planning businesses depend heavily on the quality of the people representing them to clients. Advisers need technical knowledge and commercial judgement, but successful appointments also depend on personality, communication style, client proposition and the ability to build trusted long-term relationships.

We recruit for financial planning and wealth management firms in London and across the UK, including independent firms, national businesses, consolidators and acquirers, adviser networks and businesses combining financial planning with discretionary investment management.

Our work ranges from experienced Financial Planners and Advisers through to Heads of Financial Planning and senior leadership appointments. We also recruit paraplanners and specialists supporting the advice process, alongside the compliance, operational and commercial professionals required as financial planning businesses grow.

Experienced advisers can be particularly difficult to recruit through advertising alone. Requirements may depend on location, client profile, technical specialism, existing relationships or experience of a particular type of proposition. Direct search allows us to target the market around the individual requirements of the appointment rather than relying solely on candidates already looking for a move.

For firms building or strengthening their wider teams, our functional expertise includes Legal & Compliance, Finance & Operations, Sales, Marketing & Distribution and senior Executive Search.

Typical financial planning appointments:

Financial Adviser

Chartered Financial Planner

Head of Financial Planning

Head of Paraplanning

Paraplanner

Practice Manager

Succession Planning

Board Appointments

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Private Client Investment Management Recruitment

Investment management sits at the heart of many private wealth propositions. Fram Search recruits investment professionals for wealth managers, discretionary fund managers, private banks and specialist investment businesses serving private clients.

Our assignments range from Investment Managers and Portfolio Managers to Investment Directors, Heads of Investment and Chief Investment Officers. Depending on the business, roles may combine portfolio management with significant client responsibility or sit within a more centralised investment function.

The right background depends heavily on the proposition. Experience within discretionary or advisory management, direct securities, funds, model portfolios, asset allocation or particular client segments may all influence the search. For client-facing investment roles, communication skills and the ability to explain investment decisions clearly can be just as important as technical capability.

We therefore search according to the investment philosophy, client proposition and responsibilities of the role rather than treating investment management as a single candidate market.

Investment appointments form part of our wider Investments & Front Office Recruitment practice, covering investment and front-office professionals across financial services.

Typical investment management appointments:

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Chief Investment Officer (CIO)

Head of Investment

Investment Director

Investment Manager

Portfolio Manager

Discretionary Fund Manager

Investment Analyst

Investment Specialist

Board Appointments

Team moves

Private Banking Recruitment

Private banking combines technical expertise with an unusually relationship-driven approach to recruitment. The ability to advise or manage assets is important, but so too is credibility with sophisticated clients, discretion and an understanding of the expectations associated with high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth relationships.

We recruit private banking and wealth management professionals across client relationship, investment and leadership roles in London and across the UK. This includes Private Bankers and Relationship Managers as well as investment professionals and senior appointments.

Requirements vary considerably between organisations. Some roles are primarily relationship-led, while others require considerable investment knowledge or involve working closely with specialists across lending, financial planning, tax, investments and wealth structuring.

For senior and client-facing appointments, an established network may be relevant, but we look beyond the size of an individual's contact book. The nature and longevity of their relationships, their experience of the target client segment and the environment in which those relationships were developed can be equally important.

Our Investments & Front Office practice supports investment-focused appointments, while our Legal & Compliance and Finance & Operations teams recruit the specialist functions supporting regulated wealth businesses.

Typical private banking appointments:

C-Suite & Senior Leadership

Head of Private Banking

Private Banker

Senior Private Banker

Relationship Manager

Wealth Manager

Investment Manager

Portfolio Manager

Team Head

Board Appointments

Family Office Recruitment

Family offices can require a particularly broad combination of investment expertise, judgement, discretion and cultural fit. The responsibilities attached to a role may also differ considerably from an apparently similar position within a larger financial institution.

We recruit for single and multi-family offices, covering investment professionals, senior leadership and specialist appointments in London and across the UK, as well as select placements in Europe. Our work can include individuals responsible for portfolio management and investment selection as well as professionals supporting the wider operation of the family office.

Successful recruitment in this market requires understanding not only the technical brief but also the environment into which somebody is being appointed. Smaller teams can make individual hires disproportionately important, while confidentiality, working style and the ability to operate with considerable autonomy may form a significant part of the requirement.

For investment appointments, we consider asset-class and portfolio experience alongside the nature of the capital previously managed. For broader leadership roles, the ability to work across investments, advisers, governance and operational matters may be particularly valuable.

Our wider functional practices allow us to support family offices across Investments & Front Office, Finance & Operations, Legal & Governance and senior Executive Search appointments.

Typical family office appointments:

Chief Investment Officer (CIO)

Investment Director

Investment Manager

Portfolio Manager

Investment Analyst

Chief Operating Officer

Finance Director

Family Office Executive

Board Appointments

How we work

Wealth Management Executive Search

Senior wealth management appointments often require a very specific combination of sector experience, technical knowledge, leadership capability and client credibility.

For executive and strategically important appointments, we map the relevant market and approach individuals directly. This allows clients to consider established professionals who may not be actively seeking a new role and would therefore be unlikely to appear through conventional recruitment advertising.

Our executive search work spans leadership, investment, financial planning, commercial and control-function appointments across the wealth management market.

Executive Search

Reaching an Established Market

We have recruited within UK wealth management for more than 15 years, building relationships with professionals across financial planning, private banking, investment management and the wider functions supporting these businesses.

That network is combined with targeted research and direct headhunting. Rather than restricting a search to applicants or an existing database, we identify the people whose experience is relevant to the particular organisation and approach them directly.

We offer both retained executive search and contingent recruitment, depending on the seniority, complexity and circumstances of the appointment.

Contingent Recruitment

Case studies & testimonials

Head of Financial Planning - successful and respected law firm

We were contacted by the firm, as this was a senior appointment, and whilst the client had already met some strong candidates, they hadn’t quite met the brief. The role was very attractive, but as the firm is based outside of London, the available talent pool was smaller than normal.

We followed our proven search process - networking, database research, and direct candidate approach - and shortlisted exclusively within four weeks. The appointed candidate has since proven to be a highly successful hire.

We were exclusively appointed by the client, and we shortlisted within four weeks of being briefed. This resulted in a highly qualified candidate being appointed, who has since gone on to be a very successful hire.

Leading bank

Fram were contact by a client in the banking industry, who were keen to understand the talent pool better within the senior finance market. They had a particular challenge and transformation they wanted to embark on and it was apparent to them that they required different skills than they currently had within their business.

To ensure that they start on the right path, and to challenge their own thinking on the best way to resource the project, the client asked if we could help them understand the available talent pool. This project was to understand how readily available a specific skillset was, to see if anybody had successfully completed a similar project, and of course they wanted to understand the likely cost implications of such a project.

Fram worked with the client to agree a timetable for delivery and we kept the client informed throughout the project of our progress. Due to the strength of our research we were able to give them insight into the market within two weeks of being instructed.

In this situation, the client benefitted from our research expertise, our GDPR compliant process, and this was all done without eating into their exiting team's resources or time.

A fast growing wealth manager, who were recruiting in multiple areas of the business.

Fram’s unique structure was ideally suited to our client’s needs, as we give clients access to the knowledge of our entire team, rather than one individual. This approach combines improved resourcing and screening with knowledge of the dynamics and terminology of the industry. Providing the client with one relationship manager, supported by specialist consultants with functional expertise relevant to the individual role, we were able to help the firm hire across multiple areas.

We were initially asked to assist our client hire an Investment Manager. The role required some additional skills to the usual IM profile, but we were still able to build a shortlist from our database. However, we wanted to go a step further to get the best outcome, and so we spoke to people in our network to gather their views on suitable candidates. It was from this networking process that we found the appointee.

The client then asked us to assist with a senior operations hire. The relationship manager at Fram put together a different team to support the client and source the best available talent for the position. Again, we were successful in placing a high quality candidate. The feedback we received was very positive and we look forward to continuing to support this growing firm.

Your assistance in introducing the two candidates has been excellent, the broader assistance in pointing candidates towards me has also been a very satisfactory. I can see that not only did you grasp my need for specific candidates, you also demonstrated a rare ability to focus attention on the quality of the candidates and not quantity of candidates.

This has brought about a really good engagement experience with Fram Search

Recruitment Director, leading Advice firm

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