Rathbones Unit Trust Managers chief executive Mike Webb tells us his first investment was an endowment mortgage and that he used to be a stand-up comedian
By Geordie Clarke | Published 11:02 |
Article from FT Adviser
Mike Webb, chief executive of Rathbones Unit Trust Managers, says the internet is the single most imporant event of the past 50 years and that the most important thing for companies to learn is to put the client first.
What was your first ever investment? A standard life endowment policy backing a mortgage. It’s due to mature in 2016 and the last statement they sent to me had a red alert all over it. I think it’s worth half as much as the term assured. If nothing else, it at least forced me to put a certain amount away each month.
What’s the most significant non-financial event in the past 50 years? Without question the internet. It has changed the way everybody works. It means that small companies can become global without even thinking about it and that has certainly reshaped our lives. It’s just an immensely positive thing.
Where were you when Lehman’s collapsed? I was at Hermes pension fund management and I remember staring out of the window thinking, well, three of the four horsemen of the apocalypse were there, when will the the fourth to arrive? It was an extremely frightening period.
If I had one piece of advice for the industry 50 years ago it would be… Put the client first. I don’t think it was done enough in the past and you still see bad practice in investment banks and other areas of the industry where it was more about the profit and loss than the importance of the client. If you look after the client the profits will work themselves out.
If I was not in financial services I would be… In trouble probably. I used to be a stand-up comic in my youth, so I guess the only other thing that I’m good at is acting. I’d probably be a poor out-of-work actor.
If I could put £50,000 into an investment now and only take it out in 50 years, I would put it… I would put it in emerging markets. While they’re extremely volatile and places like China will have problems moving from being a developing economy to a developed one the balance of economic power is undoubtedly going to move from the west to the east.
My worst investment was… The worst one undoubtedly was a private business called Ecotek Technology, which was a business that had discovered a means of producing a catalytic converter for cars that reduced fuel consumption and improved CO2 emissions. I knew I was in trouble when the chairman wrote to me after six months to tell me the person who had I thought invented the device wasn’t him but in fact was his son and they fallen out. At that moment I realised my investment was going nowhere.
Article from FT Adviser
