Rathbones is on a mission to become the best wealth manager in the UK – by far. It’s an ambition that goes far beyond investment performance or market share as it also touches every aspect of the business, from client experience and digital innovation to the way the brand is presented and understood. At the heart of this mission lies marketing, not as a standalone function, but as a force that connects purpose, client insight and business strategy.
For Simonetta Rigo, group chief client officer at Rathbones, marketing sits at the intersection of strategy, client insight and execution. It’s responsible for connecting every touchpoint so that the Rathbones brand consistently delivers on its promise to help people invest well.
That means understanding clients at every stage of their journey, measuring impact across multiple channels and working hand-in-hand with distribution and front-office teams to ensure marketing isn’t a siloed function, but an enabler of growth.
Marketing at Rathbones, one of the UK’s leading wealth and asset management groups, also carries the responsibility of shaping perception. With a heritage that stretches back to 1742, the brand can be misinterpreted as exclusive or distant. Modern marketing efforts aim to make Rathbones relevant, approachable and trusted, translating the firm’s history of expertise into a narrative that resonates with today’s investors.
At its core, Rathbones’ marketing mission is a simple but ambitious one to support the firm’s drive for excellence by creating a brand and client experience that not only stands out in the market but actively contributes to being the best.
The red thread of purpose
Rigo’s remit as group chief client officer is broad but anchored by a single idea to shape and deliver the Rathbones brand experience end to end.
Her responsibilities span incorporating consumer and intermediary research, competitive insights and enhancing client care.
From there, the focus extends into marketing and client strategy, where building the Rathbones brand and driving demand into the business go hand in hand to ensure that marketing plays a direct role in top-line growth.
Her remit continues into brand and digital services, including the in-house agency responsible for the website, creative and presentation materials, as well as brand experience design across UX and UI and the cross-functional sponsorship of the client portal and app development.
Internally, it carries into colleague communications and advocacy, where the emphasis is not only on keeping employees informed but empowering them to represent the brand externally. This is complemented by corporate communications and public affairs, which broaden the brand’s reach across all stakeholders, not just consumers.
“My world covers all of this. In some cases, I’m the direct owner and direct driver of activity and, in other cases, I’m more of an orchestrator. But ultimately, anything that is around the brand experience falls into my world,” she explains.
Despite the breadth of responsibilities, Rigo is clear that everything is connected by a single “red thread”, Rathbones’ purpose of helping people invest well so they can live well.
This comes from when she joined Rathbones in 2024 and identified a need for greater clarity around both purpose and positioning. This led to the development of a new purpose and set of values, centred on helping more people invest their money well so they can live well, which is now captured in the phrase “Invest well. Live well”.
“There isn’t just an element of investing for both your current and future wellbeing, there’s also the notion of investing well and the idea that, as one of the biggest players in the industry, we hold ourselves to a higher standard of quality,” she says.
That purpose has since been sharpened further at leadership level. Following Jonathan Sorrell’s arrival in July 2025 and subsequent appointment as group CEO a month later, the ambition was elevated to becoming “the best wealth manager in the UK by far.”
In this context, the purpose of helping people invest well so they can live well underpins a broader vision to lead the industry outright whether through being the first choice for clients and talent, the most effective operator or the most reputable brand.
“That has a whole series of dimensions that we want to be the first choice for clients, the first choice for talent, the most effective operator and the most reputable brand,” she says. “It’s great also to have a Group CEO who not only wants to be the best, but who sees the role of brand in being recognised as the best.”
Going beyond client-facing
Rigo says that while working on Rathbones’ purpose and values, she took time to reflect on what truly sets the company apart. One defining feature, she notes, is the depth of relationships Rathbones builds with its clients and its instinct to always go one step further.
“Every wealth manager says ‘our strength is the quality of our client relationship’ but when we spoke to some of our clients that had multiple wealth managers, they told us our services go above and beyond compared to what others do and if you see our 4.9 TrustPilot rating that’s the proof in the pudding that we do,” she says.
For Rigo, deepening client relationships requires understanding that being client-facing does not automatically mean being client-centric.
Wealth managers typically only see the clients they have today. Without disciplined methods to broaden that perspective, they risk overlooking people who aren’t currently clients or those who don’t yet use a wealth manager at all.
“It’s great that we are client-facing, and with that comes the obligation to be truly client-centric for the clients we serve,” she says.
“At the same time, it’s valuable to bring additional disciplines into wealth management – which you’ve seen more and more with the creation of roles like mine – where we start identifying gaps and asking: what do we know about our existing clients? What do we know about our prospects? And how do we fill the gaps in that knowledge?”
To address this, one of Rigo’s first initiatives in the role was a deep prospect segmentation study. By mapping Rathbones’ clients to these segments, the team could see where the business is strong, where it is underweight and what it needs to do to win over new clients, marking a critical step in becoming truly client-centric.
Rigo also emphasises the importance of evolving strategies alongside client expectations, particularly in the digital sphere. She notes a common misconception that because Rathbones isn’t a DIY platform, digital isn’t as central to the experience.
While partly true, she says, it’s only half the story. Digital should extend the human advisory experience, not replace it, and clients who expect digital should have it.
“All of our lives are increasingly digital, and with AI now available on everyone’s phones, there’s a growing expectation for greater digital transparency and visibility,” she notes.
Assessing relationship impact
Because Rathbones’ approach is so relationship-focused, traditional marketing metrics don’t always capture the full picture.
That’s why Rigo looks at the entire client lifecycle from before they join, to onboarding and through their time with the firm and applies key metrics across every stage.
For example, when assessing clients who are already with Rathbones, she relies on rigorous Net Promoter Score measurements and TrustPilot reviews, which both consistently show that Rathbones excels in service quality.
“We take time and effort to understand how well we’re servicing our clients,” she says.
She also examines the onboarding process to identify friction points and looks upstream to understand brand awareness and perception. How many clients know Rathbones? How positive is that view? How did they find the brand? Through the website or referrals?
“In my world, digital lead generation is really critical. If I have a strong brand and people have a strong consideration for it, then at the right moment – whether they’ve seen an ad or have a need of their own – they’ll visit our website and click the ‘let’s talk’ button,” she says.
“When that happens, we have a system in place to act quickly: we pick up the inquiry, contact them, speak with them and make sure they are directed to the part of Rathbones that best meets their needs.”
That “best place” depends on the client’s needs. For example, international clients might go to the Jersey or Guernsey teams while those with complex wealth needs to the Private Office, and others to local offices, such as Cambridge, Glasgow or Leeds. Throughout it all, face-to-face contact remains a priority to help deeper relationships develop.
Though Rigo notes this is just one of many channels as clients also arrive through referrals, the distribution teams or front-office colleagues who prospect independently.
At every stage, Rathbones measures how well it supports clients, not only through service, but also by delivering investment performance aligned with their objectives and risk preferences.
“It’s a whole end-to-end process in my world,” she says, when referring to bringing together client experience, digital engagement and the purpose of helping people invest well so they can live well.
Collaboration at the core
Delivering a purpose-driven, client-centric experience requires more than strategy as it also demands collaboration. Understanding clients and their journeys at Rathbones relies on close teamwork between marketing and client-facing teams, all aligned around a shared purpose and a common ambition to be the best.
A rigorous segmentation framework also ensures every team stays focused on the customer and understands their journey.
“If the journey starts digital, then there’s a part of my team that caters specifically to that,” Rigo explains. “If the journey starts with grassroots activity – working with business owners, lawyers, accountants or professional partners – then we work very closely with our distribution team and map the way they’re organised.”
She notes that teams are structured around client segments, taking into account the source of wealth, which often drives specific client needs. This allows marketing and distribution to go to market together, ensuring those working with professional partners are fully supported.
While the front-office colleagues handle the bulk of the business, Rigo ensures they are equipped with insights, content, pitch packs and client care surveys, keeping them attuned to client needs.
“I sit on the Group Executive and Wealth Management Committees, and I know my team is part of how the business is run. We’re not operating in silos,” she adds.
Routes to market vary as some are initiated centrally by marketing, some by distribution with marketing support and others in a devolved way by front-office colleagues. Regardless, Rigo’s team maps each route to ensure they remain relevant and supportive internally.
This collaborative approach extends beyond client-facing teams and reaches the board level as well. As an executive committee member, Rigo regularly engages with the board to discuss how Rathbones is performing across all routes to market from prospecting to client servicing and the overall health of the brand.
She says the board’s active involvement in marketing was also a key factor in her decision to join Rathbones.
“Generally speaking, the board understand the importance of marketing and has really been a sponsor of this role and this function,” she says.
Modernising heritage
Rigo notes that showcasing the elements of the Rathbones brand and how it stands out from competitors has been a journey. One that began with modernising how the brand is presented, though she admits there is still more to do.
“Our website has already improved, and there’s more improvement that we would like to make,” she says. “We started to become more visible in advertising. Historically, the company hadn’t done a lot of that.”
She also monitors Rathbones’ presence on large language models, like ChatGPT, to ensure the brand is being represented accurately. Thanks to the PR team, she notes the company now has one of the leading shares of voice in earned media, and employees are actively encouraged to tell the brand story themselves.
Rigo highlights the recent International Women’s Day campaign on LinkedIn, where female practitioners shared their experiences of supporting clients while building confidence in a traditionally male-dominated industry.
With this modernisation journey, many firms might be expected to balance their heritage with contemporary updates. For Rathbones, that balancing act is particularly significant.
The firm began as a family-run timber merchant in 1742 and, by 1912, had shifted entirely to managing clients’ wealth. In 1992, Rathbones marked its 250th anniversary by joining the London Stock Exchange, giving it a rich and storied history.
However, Rigo takes a different perspective. She notes that while the brand has heritage, it isn’t yet as widely recognised as it could be by people who might benefit from its services and there’s still work to do to become even better known.
Even when the brand is recognised, heritage can be a double-edged sword because it can give Rathbones traditional cachet, but it can also depress consideration if the behaviours of the brand don’t align with modern expectations.
“We’re in a culture where the everyday person feels that businesses and politicians are favouring the elites as opposed to everyday people and so heritage and exclusivity can turn against you,” she says.
Therefore, leaning too heavily on heritage could reinforce perceptions that wealth managers are only for a select few, which is a notion that runs counter to Rathbones’ purpose of helping anyone who wants guidance on their financial journey.
As a result, Rigo’s efforts focus on creating a modern, accessible website that conveys expertise rather than privilege. She pairs the firm’s heritage with consistent delivery, trust and professional expertise, while integrating a digital experience that emphasises transparency.
“All of these things can really help turn heritage into something that accelerates our progress, rather than something that could be used against us,” she notes.
By focusing on modernising the brand and clearly defining what the Rathbones brand stands for, the firm is turning heritage from a potential constraint into a strategic advantage.
This work ties directly to the client-centric approach, the measurement of the client journey and the collaboration across marketing, distribution and front-office teams.
Every touchpoint, from digital interactions to face-to-face advice, now reinforces transparency, expertise and trust, rather than exclusivity.
In doing so, the brand becomes a tangible expression of Rathbones’ broader ambition to be the best wealth manager in the UK.
Modernisation isn’t just about appearances, it’s about ensuring the firm lives up to its purpose in every interaction, builds stronger client relationships and supports colleagues in delivering exceptional service.
Heritage, purpose and innovation come together to strengthen the brand, helping accelerate the firm’s progress toward excellence across every aspect of its business.