Benchmark sale to Söderberg & Partners tightens wealth focus ahead of $13.5B US deal
Schroders has agreed to sell Benchmark, its UK-based integrated financial advice business, to Söderberg & Partners, a move that narrows the asset manager's wealth arm just as it prepares to come under US ownership through Nuveen's pending $13.5 billion takeover.
The company confirmed the transaction in a statement, describing it as part of a broader effort to simplify the group that was first laid out in March 2025. Alongside the sale, Schroders and Söderberg & Partners are extending their existing working relationship, with Schroders staying on as a long-term asset management partner to the combined firm and supplying whole-portfolio solutions.
The Benchmark sale changes what Nuveen will be buying; rather than absorbing a sprawling UK advice network, Nuveen would inherit a leaner Schroders wealth franchise built around Cazenove Capital domestically and Schroders Wealth Management internationally, both aimed squarely at high-net-worth, ultra-high-net-worth, family office, charity, endowment and foundation clients.
That distinction lines up with commitments Nuveen has already made around the takeover, including keeping London as its largest office outside the US and retaining Schroders chief executive Richard Oldfield to run the business as a standalone unit for at least a year post-completion.
Oliver Gregson, chief executive of wealth management at Schroders, tied the Benchmark sale directly to that ongoing restructuring.
"This transaction marks another important milestone in delivering the Wealth Management strategy we set out in 2025. It further sharpens our focus, enabling us to concentrate our investment, expertise and ambition behind the clients and markets where we have the strongest right to win and where we believe we can create the greatest long-term value,” he said.
The deal follows a pattern of Schroders lining up institutional tie-ups rather than standalone growth, echoing its recent hybrid public-private partnership with Apollo aimed at wealth and retirement channels, including plans for a US collective investment trust for defined contribution plans.
Söderberg & Partners, meanwhile, gains a UK advice business it has been eyeing since entering the market in 2024. Founded in Sweden in 2004, the group manages £108 billion in assets under advice and counts more than 5,500 staff across the Nordic region, the Netherlands and the UK.
