The Inside Track: how Chris Fisher has overseen the growth of Multrees

09 May 2017

As chief executive of Multrees Investor Services, Chris Fisher is able to enjoy his hands-on role within the business. He was instrumental in setting up the business in 2011, building on a proven career in asset servicing and wealth management. Through his skills and vision, Chris has helped grow Multrees into a successful outsourcing provider for the wealth management sector.

Perhaps his biggest contribution is to have realised the potential for a business like Multrees and to have helped turn this idea into a viable and thriving organisation. Chris explains: “When we launched, we could see there was a gap in the market. After the financial crisis, many bank providers to the sector began to remove services.” 

Multrees stepped into this space to offer independent custody, investment administration and consolidated reporting services. “We knew there was a potential for a company that took a fresh approach to technology and offered clients flexibility and more customised solutions.”

The challenge, he admits, is maintaining this individual approach as the business has grown: “One of my priorities has been to ensure that as we’ve scaled up the business, we haven’t lost our unique service proposition, nor the flexibility to respond to the needs of our clients.”

Chris has been instrumental in helping recruit and retain many of the people who work at the company today - whether this is within the technology side of the business or the client solutions team. “My role has been to explain how Multrees offers something different to our competitors. I’ve helped persuade the right people to come and join us.” This remains critical to the success of the business: “We wouldn’t have achieved what we have without our talented, loyal and enthusiastic workforce.”

These skills have been put to good use when attracting new clients to the business. In recent years, Multrees has grown both its private and institutional business at an impressive rate.

The strategic guidance provided by his leadership continues to be important, as Multrees negotiates the challenges - and maximises opportunities - in today’s wealth management market.

Chris says for many in the industry the challenge is how to thrive in an era of low returns: “The wealth management industry is maturing quickly but there have been growing pains along the way for wealth managers. Our job is to make their life as easy as possible, allowing them to focus on serving the needs of their clients. There will continue to be pressure from robo-based operatives and passively managed funds. We hope our smart use of technology will show that we can help wealth managers deliver the right solutions at the right price for their clients.”

Chris continues: “Technology can still provide answers for many in the wealth management sector - but the trick is to choose the right technology and think carefully about how this is integrated within the business. You need to remain nimble. You don’t want to pay for a whole system only to find it’s obsolete within a couple of years.” At Multrees, Chris and his team continue to pioneer a more flexible and adaptable approach: “We want to put in place building blocks that can be updated or amended as necessary. Doing so has helped us stay ahead of the game.”

Chris concludes: “My role is not to come up with ideas. I’ve others in the business to do this. My job is to make decisions on which of these ideas will be best for the business and will continue to help drive it forwards.”