Hawksmoor co-founder and ex-Rathbones veteran launch private office
Max Weatherby and David Till partner with Peregrine & Black to establish Eclipse Private Office.
BY
DYLAN LOBO (Editor of Citywire Wealth Manager)
Former Hawksmoor investment manager head Max Weatherby and ex-Rathbones wealth veteran David Till have joined forces with Peregrine & Black to launch a private office.
The venture, called Eclipse Private Office, is named after the first recorded racehorse in the General Stud Book started by Weatherby’s ancestor James Weatherby in 1791, considered to be the greatest racehorse of its day.
Eclipse Private Office will provide wealth consulting services to ultra-high-net-worth clients from its bases in London and Bury St Edmunds.
The private office will sit alongside Peregrine & Black’s existing wealth and advice division, which oversees around £400m in assets.
Weatherby (pictured above) was one of the founding directors of Hawksmoor Investment Management back in 2008. He was a director of the business for eight years from 2009, serving as investment management head.
He continued in this role until 2022, overseeing the sale of Hawksmoor to private equity firm Hurst Point. At the point of his departure in March 2023, he headed the firm’s London and Bury St Edmunds offices.
Till retired from Rathbones in 2017 after a career spanning nearly four decades. He started out with Lloyds private banking division, before moving to Williams de Broë, which was subsequently acquired by Investec Wealth & Investment in 2011. He joined Rathbones three years later as an investment director.
Till, who is no longer authorised by the FCA, will serve as a consultant to Eclipse, with Weatherby heading the business.
‘Serendipitous’ meeting
Weatherby and Till have been active investors since stepping down from their respective roles, with the former running some family money over the last 12 months.
The pair built a friendship during their careers and the idea to set up a private office was born in April 2023 during a lunch meeting.
‘After more than 18 years in the business with no more than two-week breaks, I needed a breather and some time out,’ Weatherby told Citywire Wealth Manager.
‘David and I had known each other for a number of years and when he was at Rathbones we even had the same client. We had lunch in Bury St Edmunds and he told me about his idea for a private office.’
‘We had both worked in investment at a very senior level and wanted to build a business where we could outsource the compliance so we could focus on the investment matter.’
The next step was finding the right business to partner with. While they had drawn up a short list of potential firms, it was a somewhat fortuitous encounter with Peregrine & Black co-founder Karl Thompson that paved the way for the launch of Eclipse.
Thompson told Citywire Wealth Manager that Eclipse was a natural evolution of its business and that hearing about Weatherby and Till’s plans was ‘great timing’.
‘We had already made a strategic decision to form a private office alongside our existing financial planning and investment management services,’ Thompson said.
‘So it was a serendipitous meeting with Max when he pitched the idea for a private office to my fellow directors here at Peregrine & Black.’
Eclipse has set an investment threshold of £7m, although this starting point can be moved, subject to circumstances. Weatherby said the business has so far attracted two clients.
‘Our primary concern is that the client’s values match ours and that we can work together,’ he said. ‘Life’s too short to work with people you don’t like.’
The annual fee levied on clients starts at 0.3% and tapers off depending on the sum invested.
Weatherby also emphasised that Eclipse will have an independent investment process with no bias to in-house investment funds.
He admitted there have been challenges setting up a business, with problems popping up in ‘unexpected quarters’. He said the key is keeping fixed costs as low as possible.
‘It is early days, but I am grateful for the encouragement I received from many quarters in launching Eclipse and the support of early backers,’ Weatherby said.
‘It feels very much like the early days of Hawksmoor, bringing together some talented people and it’s exciting. I’m doing this because I want to, not because I need to, and I’m determined to enjoy it.’
Published in Citywire Wealth Manager on 5th March 2024
