Former Tees Wealth head of investment management Kieran Follis has teamed up with platform P1 Investment Services to launch boutique DFM investment management firm Magellan Research & Investment.

The firm says it plans to offer a highly-focused range of actively managed, risk-adjusted model portfolios for financial advisers and their clients.


It will operate under the P1 umbrella, using the firm's regulatory, administrative and tech support framework, as well as its low-cost, digital-only investment platform.

Meanwhile, Magellan model portfolios will also be available on several other advisory platforms.

Mr Follis has previously been a divisional director at Gerrard/Barclays Wealth as well working most recently at Tees Wealth in Bishop’s Stortford.

Mr Follis said: “The ongoing spate of M&A within the investment industry fills us with dismay. It speaks to the herding of clients, homogenous portfolios and an increasing lack of differentiation between what seems an ever-decreasing circle of fewer, but very large firms.

“We are determined to work as true client managers, not simply client gatherers. Professionally, we also want to shine a bright light into the dark corners of the DFM world, where fees can remain stubbornly high, but returns often disappoint.”

He met with several platform providers in the build-out of Magellan, before choosing P1. He said: “They share our vision of careful growth, and as close partners on our journey, stand beside us with the resources and skill we need.”

P1 chief executive James Priday said: “Kieran bringing his business under the P1 umbrella is a natural fit. P1 is always looking to work with innovative investment managers. We look to support them in the same way that we support advice firms; by letting them focus on the job by removing operational and administrative burden.”

Magellan will join P1 alongside several investment managers operating their businesses under P1’s umbrella, including Elston Portfolio Management, Corrival Capital Management, Pangea Impact Investments and Five Horizons.

Last year former Brooks Macdonald investment director Daniel Minett teamed up with P1 to launch his own DFM-based wealth management firm.