First of all, we would like to wish all our clients and candidates a very Happy New Year and a good start to 2017!

2016 was a bumpy ride in many ways, with the Brexit vote providing a bit of a stumbling block. The investment banking jobs market was particularly badly hit, with one recruitment CEO describing the market as ‘annihilated’. The effect was felt elsewhere too, and we certainly noticed a marked decrease in activity over the summer. However, we felt confidence returning from both clients and candidates towards the end of 2016, and we expect this trend to continue into 2017.

So what else can we expect from the new year? Consolidation has been a key word in wealth management in the last few years, and we expect this to continue. With the increased costs and complexity involved with working with private clients, we feel scale will continue to be a priority for management teams. We also expect less interest in investment managers & portfolio managers who make active decisions vs a centralised investment process, and foresee a trend towards portfolio managers becoming business development specialists. We can’t see any obvious drivers of significantly increased salaries for portfolio managers. On a plus note, firms have been adjusting their operating models to cope with the new world in recent years, and this adjustment seems to be nearing completion. Businesses have reshaped, tried to take out cost, and the next phase for many is to achieve growth.

As for Fram, we are looking to a year of continued growth. 2016 brought many exciting changes for us, including a rebrand, establishing a presence in Manchester and Edinburgh and expansion into legal recruitment. We also had some fun along the way, from client events, team bowling and our final act of Xmas frivolity – a team boomerang competition at Wrest Park (and, no, before you ask, it didn’t come back). We hope to grow our own headcount in 2017.