Smith & Williamson - About Us

Smith & Williamson was founded in 1881. Since then, we have managed the financial affairs of private clients and their business interests, combining an independent firm of chartered accountants with an investment management and private banking house.

Smith & Williamson Securities was incorporated in 1970. The name was changed to Smith & Williamson Investment Management Limited in 1997. In December 2002, we merged with NCL (Securities) Limited, further strengthening our position as one of the UK's leading independently owned financial advisory groups. On 7th May 2013 Smith & Williamson Investment Management Limited changed its name to Smith & Williamson Investment Services Limited (SWIS). SWIS retains responsibility for dealing, settlement, custody and banking services. In addition, a new group entity, Smith & Williamson Investment Management LLP (SWIM LLP) was created and this assumes all front office investment management responsibilities.

Today, the Smith & Williamson Group has developed further and our investment management business has £14.1 billion of funds under management*. We have circa 1450 staff based in offices in the UK and Ireland, of which about one third work in the investment management and banking division. As a professional and financial services group we have a diverse service offering and recognise that our clients' needs vary enormously. Our company-wide values hold true whether our services are delivered from one of our regional offices, our HQ in London, or alongside our international partners in 100 countries around the world**.

With Smith & Williamson’s history as a leading provider of financial advisory services to private individuals, and as two-time winner of the Investment House of the Year at the STEP Private Client Awards (2009/10 and 2010/11) we have a strong awareness of the needs of private client fund managers and the risk appetites of their clients. Smith & Williamson’s success is further demonstrated with the award of Best Growth Wealth Manager at the Investors Chronicle and FT Wealth Management Awards 2010 and 2011 as well as winning the Citywire Wealth Manager Investment Performance Award 2010, 2011 and 2012 for Large Firm of the Year. Additionally we were also awarded the “Best Smaller Group” award in the Money Observer 2010 Fund Awards for our boutique fund management business. This was awarded “in recognition of consistently superior risk adjusted performance”. In 2011 we were again recognised in the Money Observer Fund Awards and were highly commended in the "Best Smaller Group" category.

More recently Smith and Williamson  was delighted to have won the Fund Manager of the Year Awards 2011 in the Specialist Group of the year category and in 2012 picked up the Lipper 2012 Award in Equity Sector Gold and Precious Metals over three years category for our Global Gold & Resources Fund. In February, four Smith & Williamson fund managers were rated by Citywire for their three year risk adjusted performance. For up-to-date information on Smith & Williamsons' awards please click here.

Although well-known to our private client audience, the Smith & Williamson fund range has been a ‘best kept secret’ for many years. So, in 2009, the decision was made to introduce the wider intermediary market to our approach to asset management as it should be.


The value of investments can go down as well as up and investors may not receive back the original amount invested. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.


*AUM as at 31.03.13

**Smith & Williamson Limited is a UK member of Nexia International www.nexia.com one of the longest established global networks of independent accounting and consulting firms.