Financial advisor looks to City for Carbon copy of Scottish success

Perth-based financial adviser firm Carbon Financial Partners has expanded beyond Scotland after opening a new office in London.

The move follows the opening of offices in Edinburgh and Aberdeen as the business has spread its net beyond Perth’s Atholl Place where it was founded by managing director Gordon Wilson in six years ago.

Carbon said its new City office will be headed up by Dundonian Darren Lees, a previous employee who has recently been handling high net worth accounts as a wealth manager in the capital with private bankers Coutts.

Mr Lees, who was on the first year of the Carbon graduate scheme, said Carbon was looking to capitalise on the ebbing appetite among industry heavyweights to provide traditional financial advice services in the face of growing regulation.

He said: “It is a blank canvas and the timing is good as many old-style financial advisers have been dropping out of the industry because of the ever-increasing regulations.

“We are cautiously optimistic and this is a long-term strategy.

“There is a niche for Carbon’s investment philosophy, and the company’s UK profile has certainly been enhanced by winning national financial planning awards in recent years.”

While founder and managing director Gordon Wilson said the decision to expand into London was an “easy” one and the firm’s office in Bloomsbury Way was “ideal”, Dundee University law graduate Lees is not taking anything for granted, adding: “It will be challenging because we are starting from scratch in a competitive sector in London.”