The spat between national Financial Planner Tavistock and its former wealth manager Titan has worsened with Tavistock instigating legal action agains Titan.

Earlier this week Berkshire Financial Planner Tavistock terminated its 10-year strategic investment partnership with Titan Wealth, blaming “unacceptable performance.”

The surprise axing of the tie-up, agreed in June 2021, was issued to the stock market late on Monday.

In the announcement Tavistock said: "This follows a sustained period of unacceptable performance by Titan."

Titan subsequently issued a counter statement accusing Tavistock of “serious wrongful conduct” in ending the deal under which Titan managed Tavistock funds.

In a Stock Exchange announcement today Tavistock stated: “The statement made to the press by Titan on 9 July 2024 appears to reflect Titan's view of the dispute, following Tavistock's decision to terminate. Tavistock strongly denies the suggestion of wrongful conduct and considers that Titan's allegations are false and have been put forward as a retaliatory step.

“The matter is now subject to pre-action correspondence and Tavistock does not propose to comment further at this stage.”

In its statement today, Tavistock also published data from data firm FE Analytics highlighting what it calls the underperformance of Titan funds, with 5 Acumen Funds managed by Titan ranking in the fourth quartile for performance between Aug 2022 and January this year. Some of the funds cited are at or near the bottom of their sectors, according to Tavistock using FE Analytics figures.

Ascot-based Tavistock has suffered losses in recent times and has been reviewing future strategy, although it recently said it had seen some improvement financially. Last month it confirmed that it was considering “a number of potential transactions” including a bid from rival Financial Planner Saltus for part of its business.

In response, Titan says it has a claim for damages after Tavistock ended the investment agreement. 

Titan's statement this week said: "Titan notes Tavistock’s announcement dated 8 July 2024 that its 10-year partnership with Titan has come to an end. Tavistock’s suggestion that the partnership has been terminated because of 'unacceptable performance' by Titan is wrong, and strongly denied. The partnership was terminated by Titan against a background of serious wrongful conduct by Tavistock and certain individuals associated with it who, Titan believes, have deliberately acted contrary to the terms of the partnership.

In June Tavistock executive chairman Oliver Cooke moved from an executive chair role to become non-exec chair.

Last October Tavistock reported better trading after previously making a loss of nearly £1m. The previous year the group reaped a windfall profit of £30.67m after the sale of its investment arm Tavistock Wealth to Titan Wealth in August 2021 for an initial sum of £20m.

Despite its struggles Tavistock has continued to make acquisitions. In April last year the company acquired Precise Protect, a UK-wide protection business based in Bangor, Northern Ireland, which it expected to be a major contributor to the future profitability of the group and has been integrated into the business.

Following the transaction, Tavistock now has a network of more than 400 advisers and other business introducers working with more than 110,000 UK retail clients with total assets estimated to be more than £6bn, as well as 350 corporate and affinity clients with some 16,000 employees.