Wealth manager WH Ireland has appointed Michael Bishop as head of wealth management.

Mr Bishop joins from UBS, replacing Stephen Ford.

Stephen Ford is to step down as head of wealth management and as an executive director from 31 January.

Mr Bishop was a senior manager for UBS’s wealth management businesses for over 20 years, with experience building businesses both organically and through acquisition.

He started his wealth management career as a founding employee of UBS's UK domestic wealth management business in 2000.

Before joining UBS, Mr Bishop spent the early part of his career in Arthur Andersen's and PwC's tax divisions.

Mr Bishop said that while WH Ireland has made “real progress in establishing a platform for growth” there is more to do.

He said: “There remains much work to do, particularly as we focus on accelerating our path to sustainable growth and profitability, and in time to exceed our current targets, supported by a strengthened financial position to underpin organic and acquisition investment. 

“There is an exciting opportunity to continue the development of a genuinely differentiated wealth management business at WH Ireland and I am looking forward to working with the team to do just that.”

Phillip Wale, CEO of WH Ireland, said: “Michael brings with him great experience and expertise that matches our requirements as we build on Stephen's work. We have grown discretionary assets under management significantly, successfully completed our first acquisition and are strengthening our customer proposition to create real differentiation.

“We expect Michael's appointment to enable us to make further progress towards delivering our ambition to manage at least £3bn of discretionary funds under management.”

WH Ireland returned its first profit in five years in its final results for the year ended 31 March 2021. 

Group assets under management increased 40% to £2.1bn for the year (2020: £1.5bn). Of these assets, £1.6bn are from the wealth management division.

WH Ireland achieved corporate Chartered Financial Planning status from the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) in July. 

The CII awards Chartered status to firms who have made a public commitment to align themselves with the ethics and values of the CII. The CII says these values include putting clients’ interests first, investing in ongoing development of their people’s technical skills and knowledge, plus supporting wider initiatives that benefit society as well as the growth of the profession.