Smith & Williamson

Smith & Williamson is a United Kingdom financial and professional services firm. The firm's 1,700 people serve clients from 12 offices in the UK, Ireland and Jersey.[1]

Smith & Williamson
TypeLimited Company
IndustryProfessional services
Founded1881
HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
Key people
David Cobb & Kevin Stopps, coCEOs
ProductsAccounting
Corporate services
Investment management
Tax
Number of employees
1,700 (including partners)
Websitesmithandwilliamson.com

Smith & Williamson is a UK member firm of Nexia International, a worldwide network of accounting, audit and consulting firms.[2]

History

Smith & Williamson was founded by David Johnstone Smith and Andrew Williamson in Glasgow in 1881. The first London office was opened in 1893. Smith & Williamson has had a number of mergers. The first merger was with NCL (Securities) Limited, an investment manager, in 2002. Its second merger was with Solomon Hare, a private accounting firm in UK, in 2005.[3][4] In 2018 Smith & Williamson merged with LHM Casey McGrath in Dublin.[5] In September 2020, the company announced it had completed its merger with the Tilney group.[6] As of then, no changes to existing operations had been announced.[7]

In February 2022 the merged company Tilney Smith & Williamson, owned by private equity funds Permira and Warburg Pincus, was re-branded as Evelyn Partners.[8][9][10]

Locations

Smith & Williamson has twelve offices in the United Kingdom and Ireland: Bristol, Birmingham, Cheltenham, Guildford, Salisbury and Southampton, England; Belfast and Dublin (City and Sandyford), Ireland; Jersey; and Glasgow, Scotland, with the headquarter office in London, England.[11] In Belfast the firm operates under the name Cunningham Coates.[12]

Panama Papers

The company's activities came under scrutiny in 2016, when it was revealed that its employees had managed the Smith & Williamson Blairmore Global Equity Fund since 1997.[13] This fund was founded by David Cameron's (prime minister of the UK from 2010 to 2016) late father Ian.[14][15] Earlier in the year, HM Revenue & Customs won a court case against Smith & Williamson, over the treatment of "goodwill payments" made by the firm to a portfolio manager and some team members.[16]

References
  1. Dew, Laura (2 July 2018). "S&W chairman: We have bolt-on acquisitions 'in our sights'". Investment Week.
  2. "About us". Smith & Williamson.
  3. "Smith & Williamson | Company Profile | Vault.com". Vault.
  4. "Our history - Smith & Williamson". smithandwilliamson.com.
  5. "Smith & Williamson merge with LHM Casey McGrath". Accountancy Age. 2018-10-03. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
  6. "Tilney and Smith & Williamson complete merger". Smith & Williamson. Retrieved 2022-02-21.
  7. "Tilney Smith & Williamson sets out 'statement of purpose'". Financial Times. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  8. "At Tilney Smith & Williamson we are changing our name". Evelyn Partners.
  9. "Tilney Smith & Williamson to be listed or sold by PE owners". Financial Times.
  10. "Tilney S&W to be sold or listed by PE owners". FT Adviser.
  11. "Locations". Smith & Williamson.
  12. "Cunningham Coates". Cunningham Coates.
  13. "Top ten firm distances itself from Blairmore Holdings connection". AccountancyAge. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  14. "Panama Papers: David Cameron's late father's Blairmore fund fails to pay off for wealthy backers". The Independent.
  15. "HMRC wins 'goodwill payments' tax battle against Smith & Williamson - Accountancy Age". Accountancy Age. 2016-01-20. Retrieved 2017-10-24.
  16. "HMRC wins 'goodwill payments' tax battle against Smith & Williamson". 20 Jan 2016. Retrieved 9 August 2016.


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