Nutmeg.com, the first online discretionary investment manager has announced new backing in the form of John Kay, one of the Britain's leading economists. John has made a substantial personal investment in the company and will also act in an advisory capacity.
Nutmeg.com was set up by co-founders Nick Hungerford and William Todd, as an alternative to traditional wealth management offerings. In the first six months of 2013, the online investment manager has seen a huge growth in clients in the wake of RDR implementation. Nutmeg has seen registration numbers increase, reflecting appetite for the new approach to investment management.
John Kay recently hosted a roundtable discussion on the future of equities, co-chaired with Nick Hungerford, CEO and founder of Nutmeg.com - in which he outlined his belief that there is widespread dissatisfaction in the financial services industry, as a result of over-intermediation, ineffective regulation and a severe lack of transparency around charges and fees.
John Kay commented: "To some degree RDR may bring down the cost for investors, however what we've been seeing is intermediaries employing a range of devices to minimise the impact, that don't actually make that much difference when it comes down to it. Investors need a simple choice when it comes to intermediation, and development in online technology is the best way of making this happen.
"One of the attractive things about Nutmeg is it is providing a better version of intermediation in two senses- one, it is a genuine complete aggregation of your holdings- the other, it provides a real service of relating the underlying investments to your risk preference, rather than simply being in effect an execution only vehicle."
In addition to John Kay, Nutmeg's investors also include Todd Ruppert, founder and CEO of RTR International and former Board member and President, Investment Services, T.Rowe Price International; Tim Draper, an early investor in Skype and Hotmail; Daniel Aegerter, the Swiss Chairman of Armada Investment Group, Pentech Ventures, investors in SecretSales, Metaforic and Semetric; and Klaus Hommels, a board member of Spotify and formerly named the most successful Entrepreneurial Private Investor in 2006 by the leading European business schools IESE, INSEAD, and the University of St. Gallen.
Nutmeg.com offers investors zero upfront charges, zero withdrawal charges and zero transactional costs. Management fees are 1% or less and loyalty is rewarded by lowering the management fees which can be reduced to as low as 0.3%. Nutmeg.com creates a diversified portfolio built against investors individual investment goals - managed by a team of investment experts - and can be accessed with an investment starting as low as £1000.
Nick Hungerford, co-founder and CEO of Nutmeg.com commented: "To have the support of John Kay, an industry stalwart and expert in this field, affirms our belief that there is a need to shake up the investment management industry. At Nutmeg, our customer comes first- we believe that no matter their wealth or experience, they deserve the same level of service and value for money. We also believe that transparency is essential - our customers can always see exactly how much they have paid in fees. Having John onboard brings strength to Nutmeg's mission of providing low-cost, transparent and high-quality investment management."