PSigma Investment Management

PSigma Investment Management

Bill Mott and Ian Chimes co-founded PSigma Investment Management in 2004 after careers that included running the UK Income fund at Credit Suisse Asset Management. Punter Southall Group, the actuarial and investment consulting firm, incubated the venture, providing an institutional distribution channel that gave PSigma early access to pension fund and adviser networks. The firm launched as a boutique multi-manager, positioning itself as a manager of managers rather than a direct stock-picking shop — Mott ran a concentrated UK equity income mandate early on, but the broader model was always fund-of-funds. PSigma's investment strategy rests on external manager selection across three core buckets: long-only UK and global equities, fixed income, and alternatives. The firm builds multi-asset portfolios for UK retail and institutional clients using third-party funds. In equities, the team historically maintained a value-tilted bias, a legacy of Mott's income-investing philosophy. Fixed-income exposure comes through external bond managers, while alternatives allocations include property, infrastructure, and absolute-return funds. The geographic focus is primarily UK and developed-market assets, though global equity funds introduce some emerging-market exposure. Tom Becket joined in 2018 as Chief Investment Officer, shifting the investment team toward a more globally diversified, less UK-concentrated posture (per Citywire, 2018). The firm operates from a single London office under the Punter Southall umbrella, which provides operational infrastructure, compliance, and distribution. Punter Southall itself was acquired by US-based XPS Pensions Group in a restructuring that added scale but kept the PSigma brand and investment independence intact. The team size is modest — consistent with a boutique multi-manager where the portfolio managers run manager research rather than company research. PSigma's structural differentiator is the Punter Southall relationship. Most multi-manager firms are either standalone or owned by a life company. PSigma sits inside an actuarial consultancy, which creates a built-in client base of UK pension schemes and advisory firms. That architecture means the investment team can focus on manager selection without building a separate sales force. Governance runs through Punter Southall's regulated entity, while Becket's investment committee controls manager approvals and asset-allocation tilts — a model that keeps the investment process insulated from distribution pressure.