Tilney Smith & Williamson has appointed John Bunch as chief commercial director, financial services, to lead the new merged wealth management giant’s client facing practitioners.

Mr Bunch will be a member of the group executive committee and will report to Chris Woodhouse, group chief executive officer.

The £45bn mega merger between Tilney and Smith & Williamson completed earlier this week, after having stalled during the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown. 

Tilney Smith & Williamson is now the third-largest UK wealth manager when ranked by revenues inside its wealth management services, and fourth-largest when measured by AUM.

Mr Bunch has over 30 years financial services experience in the United States. He is relocating to the UK to take up this new senior management position.

In his new role at Tilney Smith & Williamson, he will lead the client facing practionners, including over 290 investment managers and 265 Financial Planners. He will have responsibility for revenue and profitability across the business, as well as client service outcomes and experience. He will be accountable for client facing new business development, local marketing initiatives across the regions and the pricing framework for the financial services business

He was formerly chief operating officer and executive vice president of Edelman Financial Engines where he led the successful integration of Financial Engines with Edelman Financial Services.  At Edelman Financial Engines Mr Bunch oversaw 130 branch locations and building the business into one of the largest US independent advisory firms with over $200bn of assets and 1.2m clients.

Prior to its acquisition by Edelman Financial Engines, Mr Bunch was CEO of The Mutual Fund Store.

During his extensive career in the US he was also previously president of client services, for TD Ameritrade where he was responsible for overseeing the retail client experience, including the branch network, investor services, guidance solutions teams and the investor education businesses. He was also Executive Vice President at TD Waterhouse, responsible for the adviser network and divisional senior vice president at Charles Schwab & Co where he was responsible for over 100 of their private client branches.

Chris Woodhouse, group chief executive of Tilney Smith & Williamson, said: “I am delighted to welcome John to Tilney Smith & Williamson in this newly created role. John is a highly experienced financial services leader with an impressive track record of bringing businesses together and motivating teams of professionals to deliver a great service for clients and achieve commercial success. He brings to the table invaluable insights gained from the US, the world’s largest wealth management market, including first-hand experience of harnessing new technologies to support both clients and advisers.”

Mr Bunch said: “I am really excited to be joining Tilney Smith & Williamson at this pivotal moment. The recently completed merger of two well-established firms has created a formidable UK financial services business with an unrivalled proposition in the UK. I believe the growth opportunities for Tilney Smith & Williamson are superb and look forward to working with the leadership team and all of our client-facing professionals and support teams to ensure that we deliver a great range of services to both existing and new clients and take the business forward to further success.”