Rothschild & Co has appointed James Morrell as CEO of its UK wealth management business.

Morrell succeeds Helen Watson, who moves to the role of chair, with both appointments effective from 1 January 2026, subject to regulatory approval. Gary Powell will step down as chair to focus on his other responsibilities and will remain on the UK Wealth Management Board as a non-executive director. Morrell became deputy CEO in 2024 having previously led the front office for seven years. He initially joined Rothschild & Co as client adviser in 2010. As CEO, Morrell will assume responsibility for Rothschild & Co’s wealth management operations across the UK and Guernsey.

The Wealthtime platform has announced appointments for three newly created senior roles.

Michael Milner has been appointed as head of proposition. His previous experience includes product and proposition development roles at Nucleus, Aegon, and Phoenix Group. At Wealthtime, he will be responsible for shaping the strategy and development of the platform’s product and service offerings. Meanwhile, Rod McClair-Burgess has been named as oversight director following the transfer of Wealthtime’s operations and technology functions to Wipro. He has more than 20 year of experience in financial services at HSBC, Standard Life Aberdeen, AXA Wealth, and, most recently, M&G Wealth where he was head of strategic partners, governance and oversight. Finally, Kylie Clark has been appointed as client experience director, where she will be responsible for customer service operations. Clark joined Wealthtime in April as senior operations consultant, having worked in customer service and operations for more than 15 years with AXA Wealth, Rowan Dartington, and SS&C Technologies.

Recently established offshore bank, Bank Aston, has named Will Davey as its chief financial officer.

Davey brings more than 30 years of international banking experience to the role. He joins the Guernsey-based bank after 11 years in Switzerland with UBS (formerly Credit Suisse). He was most recently managing director and deputy chief financial officer of Credit Suisse AG Parent Bank, overseeing the transition of key finance processes to UBS. Prior to the merger, Davey was group head of liquidity management since relocating to Zurich in 2014. Before moving to Switzerland, Davey spent more than 20 years in Guernsey with Credit Suisse.

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