Brooks Macdonald CFO appointment brings a seasoned finance director to the helm of the listed wealth manager, with Money Marketing reporting that Lucy Tilley will take up the role on 12 October, replacing Katherine Jones, who has stepped down from the board with immediate effect.
Jones joined Brooks Macdonald two years ago. Her departure is described as immediate, with no transition period disclosed. For long-term shareholders accustomed to monitoring the governance of their holdings, an unplanned CFO change at a wealth manager is the kind of event worth pausing over, even when a capable successor is already named.
Tilley’s background spans wealth management and mortgage advice
Tilley arrives with credentials across two corners of the financial services market. Most recently, she served as group CFO at Stonehage Fleming, the multi-family office and wealth management firm. Before that, according to Money Marketing, she spent nine years as CFO of Mortgage Advice Bureau, from May 2015 to May 2024. That breadth, across a listed intermediary business and a private wealth house, suggests familiarity with both the regulatory demands of a publicly quoted firm and the client-relationship sensitivities of high-net-worth wealth management.
For a business such as Brooks Macdonald, where discretionary investment management sits at the core, CFO continuity matters to the stability of internal controls, reporting lines and regulatory compliance. Investors with holdings in the firm, whether directly or through funds, will look to the incoming CFO’s first set of results for any shift in tone on costs, margins and capital allocation.
The Brooks Macdonald CFO appointment in a broader governance context
The appointment arrives alongside a busy week of industry news that, taken together, reflects a sector in motion. Rathbones has secured a Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) licence from the Central Bank of Ireland, enabling its Dublin-based entity, Rathbones Ireland, to serve clients across the EU. Camilla Stowell, CEO of Wealth at Rathbones, said: ‘People’s lives no longer fit neatly within national borders. Careers, families, businesses and investments increasingly span several countries, and wealth management has to move with them. Securing our Irish licence is therefore central to what we do.’
For UK savers with cross-border exposure, or those whose families hold assets in multiple jurisdictions, that kind of structural expansion by a major wealth manager is relevant context. It points to an industry gradually building the infrastructure to follow client complexity rather than waiting for clients to simplify themselves.
Elsewhere, new research from Royal London adds texture to the employer pension picture. Twenty per cent of employers say they prioritise tools to support employees with financial decisions at different life stages, while 17% of large employers prioritise AI or technology-driven financial advice, compared with just 7% of smaller firms. The divergence between large and small employers is a live issue for anyone advising on workplace benefits or managing a small-business pension scheme: the resources available to employees vary enormously by employer size, and that gap has consequences for retirement readiness.
On the political side, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch used the party conference in Birmingham to pledge exemption of family homes from inheritance tax under a future Conservative government. She also pledged that couples would be able to leave an additional £1 million tax-free, with the changes projected to cut every inheritance tax bill and reduce the number of families paying the tax by more than half. Badenoch stopped short of promising immediate abolition of inheritance tax, stating that any such move would depend on the public finances. For those in the accumulation or decumulation phase, estate planning remains a live consideration regardless of political direction, and the sensible approach is to structure affairs under current legislation rather than anticipated future changes.
Tilley’s arrival at Brooks Macdonald on 12 October will be the first concrete milestone to watch as the firm’s new finance leadership takes shape.
