Two former Investec Wealth & Investment Management fund managers are launching a West Midlands-based investment boutique.

MAIA Asset Management is headed up by Laurence Boyle, chief investment officer and Rebecca Williams, investment director.

The pair are known for managing the £204 million Assetmaster fund range which was sold to City Financial and taken over by multi-asset head Mark Harris in August 2015.

They left the company following the sale. The fund range was originally acquired by Investec W&I as part of its 2012 purchase of Williams de Broë. The funds’ management arm, which was formerly WDB Asset Management, was renamed IWI Fund Management two years after the acquisition.

MAIA Asset Management has been backed by the Opus Group, which has an investment and financial advice arm, with the firm’s managing director Ben Rees joining MAIA as an investment director.

As part of this deal, MAIA will oversee the management of some of Opus’s clients’ assets and will immediately have £75 million in AUM.

Laurence Boyle says the firm will run the same proposition as he did at Investec and that they will over time take on mandates for other IFAs and wealth firms.

‘It will be different as I was managing around £300 million before,’ said Boyle. ‘But we are smaller operation. I have recently turned 50 so this is about being in a different phase of my career. It is nice to be based outside of the city, I have already achieved quite a bit in my 20 years’ investing so its nice to be at a slower pace. But we are looking forward to getting started and working for our clients.’

MAIA Asset Management has not yet received authorisation by the Financial Conduct Authority but Boyle says the firm is in the final stages of gaining this.

Earlier this year, Investec W&I sold the rest of Williams de Broë’s discretionary arm to Swiss boutique Bellecapital.

The deal, completed for an undisclosed sum, saw a team of three and their client book move over to Bellecapital’s fledgling London office.

Content and original article written by Jonathan Tarker of Wealth Manager. Full Link here.