Marc Egerton has been a practitioner in financial services for all of his career. Apart from a short period of two years in the 1970s when he established and ran the Insurance Department of Harrow College of Higher Education, he has always had client contact and most of his career has been involved in advising clients, sometimes individuals and sometimes corporate clients.
Breadth of Experience
Out of Marc's more than 40 years in financial services, he has 20 years experience as a compliance consultant and 30 years experience as a financial adviser (some of which ran concurrently with compliance consultancy) although he no longer practices in these fields. He has established and managed his own IFA, compliance consultancy, and financial services training businesses, has been employed in a national IFA, and has experience as an investment manager. There are few areas of financial services where Marc has not had some involvement. This wide breadth of experience has created substantial expertise which enables him to see the wider picture, and where appropriate, advise his instructing lawyers accordingly.
Seniority of Appointments
At the age of 21 Marc Egerton was one of the youngest ever individuals to be elected as a Fellow of The Chartered Insurance Institute, and he became a director of the financial services subsidiary of the Co-operative Bank Plc at the age of 26. He has been a director or equivalent of all of the organisations he has been involved with since then.
Knowledge of Regulation
Marc's qualifications and experience have given him substantial technical expertise. Many cases are won or lost on the degree to which an authorised firm complied with the rules of its regulator, and Marc's knowledge in this area is second to none. He has many years of experience of auditing client files and advising firms on the shortcomings of advice that has been given, and is therefore extremely well qualified to comment on cases involving allegations of mis-selling or poor advice or company purchase disputes between IFAs. His broad knowledge of the industry also means he is able to report on best practice and the standards to be expected of reasonably competent financial advisers.
Practicality of Approach
He also has more experience as an expert witness than many practitioners in this field and is therefore frequently able to produce reports within very tight deadlines. He has written in excess of 250 reports and opinions and has experience of court and tribunal proceedings. He has been involved in cases valued from a few thousand pounds to over £15m. Marc often receives praise from solicitors and Counsel alike for the helpfulness of his reports to the case, and his ability to quickly identify and analyse key issues is widely appreciated. His expertise also often enables him to recognise when a case has little hope of success and his advice in such circumstances can result in cases being aborted at an appropriately early stage without excessive cost. His success rate in mediations is very high.
Key Cases
Most cases are settled without ever reaching a trial and others where Marc Egerton has given evidence in court do not warrant particular attention. However, the following key cases where Marc has given evidence in court are regarded as especially significant.
Shore v Sedgwick Financial Services
Rubenstein v HSBC Plc.
He has also been involved with Keydata, AIG, and Arch Cru cases and has been appointed in cases against the FSCS.
