"The pressure on private client fees, plus I'm not really a salesman, that was one [reason we launched this service]. Since I've taken over it's been more about strategic connections that we've got, rather than trying to sort of leverage personal networks, you know, which I think is a salesman's bread and butter.
"A managed portfolio service meant that we were interacting with other corporates, and it's a much more straightforward conversation, I find, a more technical conversation, so it kind of plays into my skills more."
Denley, a graduate of applied economics at Exeter University, started his investment career with Henderson as a unit trust analyst, then landed a role at Berry.
When at some point he realised it would be difficult for him to progress in the way he wanted to, namely in investment analysis, he took on a job as an airlines analyst – then 9/11 happened.
"[I have] very clear memories of that," he says. "I'm being told don't pick up the phone because obviously the press wanted a comment.
"And, you know, there's nothing you can say at that time that would make sense in the morning."
It was not long after that that he decided to set up Oakham with his former colleague.
A predictable strategy
Denley says the firm had a good run into the financial crisis as it was well diversified, but nevertheless the pair ended up wanting to go down different routes, eventually leading to Denley taking over the firm in 2014.
Oakham caters to the wealthy, with minimum wealth requirements of £1mn per client, though Denley admits "the average client size is going up every year".
He points to a "sweet spot" of client size, "which is in the tens of millions", saying Oakham's service and fee structure were more suited to those than larger clients, who were also "quite hard to manage".
"There is a sense that clients over that size (£25mn) tend to want more, whether it's more advice or just different levels of holistic advice, that sort of thing."
Instead, Oakham has a number of strategic partnerships which together hold under £1bn in assets under management. The firm is still a boutique, as Denley likes to point out.
It has nine staff and outsources "absolutely everything that is not client relationships and investment management", deeming this to be the easier, more straightforward way to manage the business.
When it comes to managing clients' investments Denley makes sure the strategy is kept "fairly predictable and understandable and straightforward", at least when it comes to the backbone of their investment management – the discretionary part.
