Johnstone Douglas rebrands following takeover by Forbes

IFA Johnstone Douglas is being rebranded under the name of parent company Alexander Forbes as part of a UK restructure by the firm.

Johnstone Douglas, which was bought for £42m earlier this year, will become Alexander Forbes Financial Services but will continue to be headed by Doug Johnstone as chairman and Nigel Chambers as managing director.

It will employ 300 staff throughout the UK and Channel Islands by bringing together 225 Johnstone Douglas staff and 75 Alexander Forbes employees.

Its range of services will now include benefits consultancy and administration, global and offshore consulting, private-client financial planning services as well as software development through its subsidiary, CTC. It will continue a recruitment drive for 20 further advisers to fulfil its strategy based on worksite marketing.

The firm hopes the res-tructure will enable it to enter the “major league” for advising corporate clients as wellas individual clients through its increased local and reg-ional presence.

It says stakeholder will become a major focus in the coming months, with worksite marketing emerging as a key emphasis as employees fail to buy off decision trees.

Alexander Forbes UK Financial Services managing director Nigel Chambers says: “People need interaction and readily available local advice.

“Building up a local network of client-facing staff to go into the workplace to talk to employees is part of that strategy.”