Wealth manager and Financial Planner WH Ireland has reported a drop in full year pre-tax profit from £1.5m to £1.4m despite an 11% rise in revenue to £32m.

The company blamed challenging conditions in the second half of the year (ending March 2022) for the fall.

In 2021 the company made its first profit in five years.

Phillip Wale, chief executive officer said: "WH Ireland has had another year of underlying progress across both divisions, set against a number of well-publicised and evolving wider market challenges in our second half. 

“We remain confident that we are ready to take advantage of conditions when they improve given our strengthened and improving platform across the group, despite a cautious near-term outlook."

Group assets under management rose by 14% to £2.4bn (FY 2021: £2.1bn).

The company also made a number of senior appointments during the year including Simon Jackson as group CFO, Michael Bishop as head of wealth management and Stephen Balonwu as chief risk and compliance officer.

In its wealth management division revenue was up 19% to £15.8m (FY 2021: £13.3m). The firm said this reflected a significant increase in management fees and wealth planning demand including the first full year of contribution from new acquisition Harpsden Wealth Management. The improvement came “despite a fall in commission income.”

Fee income in the wealth management division now represents 85% of total wealth management income (FY 2021: 76%). Discretionary managed assets (DFM) increased 6% to £1.0bn (FY2021: £0.9bn) and the wealth management total AUM stayed at £1.6bn (FY2021: £1.6bn)

Ultra High Net Worth and Family Office AUM rose to £0.7bn (FY 2021: £0.5bn)

WH Ireland provides Financial Planning advice and discretionary investment management with a history that goes back to 1872.