Wealth manager takes legal action against fund house for ‘unacceptable performance’
Financial planning firm Tavistock and investment manager Titan have descended into a legal spat over the alleged poor performance of Titan’s model portfolio service (MPS).
AIM-listed Tavistock, which agreed to use Titan’s MPS for its clients in June 2021, abruptly cancelled the 10-year deal between the two on Monday, crediting the decision to a “sustained period of unacceptable performance by Titan”.
“It is the board’s expectation that the final sums due under the agreement will be received in due course,” it added in its announcement.
Titan strongly denied the claim, instead saying that the partnership had been terminal due to “serious wrongful conduct by Tavistock and certain individuals associated with it”.
It added that it would be taking legal action against Tavistock as a result, and did not expect to pay the firm anything as a result of the agreement, instead stating that Titan “has claims against Tavistock for substantial damages”.
Today, Tavistock hit back, alleging that Titan’s allegations had been “put forward as a retaliatory step” in response to the termination of the deal.
“Tavistock strongly denies the suggestion of wrongful conduct and considers that Titan’s allegations are false and have been put forward as a retaliatory step,” it added in a stock exchange notice today.
The company also included a table showing the poor performance of Titan’s MPS since August 2022, alleging its portfolios consistently performed at the bottom of all other funds on the market.
Titan declined to comment.
Titan fund performance between 27 August 2022 and 4 January 2024 from Tavistock:
| Titan MPS funds | Performance vs Benchmark | Quartile Rank | Fund Rank | Percentile Rank |
| ACUMEN Portfolio 4 | -7.9 per cent | Fourth | 176/177 | 100th |
| ACUMEN Portfolio 5 | -8.3 per cent | Fourth | 177/177 | 100th |
| ACUMEN Portfolio 6 | -9.7 per cent | Fourth | 212/215 | 99th |
| ACUMEN Portfolio 7 | -11.2 per cent | Fourth | 214/215 | 100th |
| ACUMEN Portfolio 8 | -13.5 per cent | Fourth | 157/159 | 99th |
| Average | -10.1 per cent | Fourth | 100th |