Meet Simon Tutton

Simon is Deepbridge’s Regional Director, responsible for supporting our community of financial advisers across the South West of England and South Wales. Simon shares with us what his role involves and what he looks for in investment opportunities.

My colleagues and I, across the UK, are responsible for providing support to financial advisers in our respective regions, as well as being the face of Deepbridge within our regions. My area covers the South West of England and South Wales, which means I am extremely fortunate to cover such a diverse and beautiful part of the world. Being based in Bristol, I can easily be in any corner of the area when required. As well as working with our brilliant financial adviser community, I also support our investment teams by maintaining relationships with various academia and incubators in the region – with my South West office being at the Engine Shed in Bristol, which is a business hub led by the University of Bristol.

Whilst the global pandemic has created much loss and many problems to businesses, one of the key positives has been the acceleration of the adoption of video conferencing. This increased acceptance of such technology has led me to a unique opportunity. My wife is a paediatric surgeon who was recently offered the opportunity to volunteer her skills in Malawi. Due to the ability to work remotely, and thanks to Deepbridge’s support, our family is currently experiencing life in Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi, for a few months. The positive feedback I have received from our financial adviser community has been overwhelming and I’m delighted to report that Wi‑Fi is good and, so far, it has been very much business as usual. Of course, a particular highlight is to be on team video meetings with the team back in the UK, whilst I am basking in 30 degrees sunshine!

Malawi is a fascinating country, with huge economic and social challenges, and we’re all enjoying our time here. The wildlife is an absolute joy, watching wild elephants bathing in Lake Malawi being a particular highlight, whilst also being as scary as hell… with scorpions and massive spiders making our home their home!

Prior to joining Deepbridge, having graduated from The University of Glasgow with an MA (hons) in History and French, I had spent a number of years working as a financial adviser with my latter role advising specifically on tax‑efficient investments. The move to Deepbridge, in 2015, was therefore a no‑brainer as I’m keen to highlight why and how investors can utilise venture capital investments, with the significant potential tax reliefs available via the Enterprise Investment Scheme, to create growth‑focused portfolios.

As well as continuing our adventure in Malawi, I’m excited about the coming twelve months as we have so many companies in our portfolios which are at exciting stages in their development – which will mean lots of good news stories to share with our advisers and investors. I’m also excited by Dr Brian Moretta’s (Hardman & Co) recent white paper* which investigates the effect of adding venture capital to equity/bond portfolios for investors in order to significantly improve investor returns without altering the overall portfolio risk profile. It’s a very interesting read and could be a real driver in shaping how many financial advisers and investors think about venture capital and specifically the Enterprise Investment Scheme.

* TES white paper: how much should clients invest in venture capital? – Hardman & Co.