Rothschild Asset Management has lured William Simpson from Barclays Private Bank to join the firm's wealth management team as senior fund manager. Simpson was a director at Barclays, and he joins a seven-strong team, reporting to Dean Lush, head of the private client group since last August. He has also worked for Charles Stanley and James Capel.

Hiscox has appointed Guy Knight as its new head of high-net worth retail. The position is newly created, reflecting the growing importance of HNW market for Hiscox, one of the UK's largest specialist insurers. Knight was previously at Deutsche Bank's corporate and investment bank division where he was global head of marketing, advertising and brand management.

Lea Blinoff, head of JP Morgan Private Bank's self directed investor adviser section for Europe, the Middle East and Asia in London, has left. The position has yet to be filled although JP Morgan is looking to do so as soon as possible.

Pierre Gerbier, who headed Credit Suisse's family office business in London, has left. Gerbier joined Credit Suisse from the Royal Bank of Canada to spearhead the newly formed family office business last summer. The unit originally employed three people. Russell Bussey, in charge of developing Credit Suisse's regional business in the UK, has also left and has apparently not yet taken up a new position.

Abbey National is creating a new division covering wealth management and has appointed Malcolm Millington to head the new division. The bank has also asked three executives to leave. Tim Ingram, managing director of business to business banking; John King, corporate development and resource director, and Ian Treacy, former company secretary.

Old Mutual has hired Rudi Bogni, formerly chief executive of private banking at UBS in London, as a non-executive director. Rudi currently holds a number of directorships and trusteeships including the Governing Council of the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, Prospect Publishing and Civilia. He also chairs the International Advisory Board of Oxford Analytica.

US

Jack Markwalter has been appointed executive vice president of client services and business development for Atlantic Trust Pell Rudman. Markwalter joins from Morgan Stanley where he was national director of the client strategy group for the bank's private wealth management division. Morgan Stanley has recently suffered an additional loss from its private wealth management group. Dan Waters, managing director and head of the client strategy group in New York, left in early February to join Front Partners, the alternative investments firm, as a partner.

G Moffat Cochran and Martin Jaffe have launched their own wealth manager, Silvercrest Asset Management. The two were former president and chief financial officer respectively at Credit Suisse Asset Management, which services ultra high net-worth investors with more than $25m. The two founded the firm last month; Cochran as chairman and Jaffe as chief operating officer. They left CSAM last summer.

AmSouth has hired E Kent Lytle, from Goldman Sachs as senior vice president in charge of personal trust and fiduciary services. Wealth management chief Geoff von Kuhn has been trying to fill the job since last April, when he joined AmSouth from Citigroup.

Asia Pacific

Jeremy Nestel has been appointed head of operations for Citigroup Private Bank in Australia. Nestel replaces Chor Yong Tang, who has returned to Singapore with the bank. Nestel was most recently non-resident Indian business global head at Citigroup Private Bank in London.

Global Asset Management has lured David Lam from Merrill Lynch to run its private banking operations in Hong Kong. Lam joins from Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific where he spent five year as director of private wealth services in the Special Administrative Region.