LAWYER DONAL Roche, chairman and co-founder of Appian Wealth Management, has decided to strike out on his own with the launch of Covestone, an investment advisory company that will have about €100 million initially in funds under management.

Roche (56), a former managing partner of law firm Matheson Ormsby Prentice, is taking about €40 million worth of funds from Appian into Covestone, which has been approved by the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority.

Covestone will manage money on behalf of high net-worth individuals, families and charities. Roche is being joined at Covestone by Keith Ryan, a former executive director at the Goldman Sachs investment management division; Eileen Roche, an economist and former associate director of Avoca Capital; and Eoin Donegan, a former investment analyst with Appian. Further additions to the investment team and board appointments are expected in the coming months.

The parting with Appian, which took over the old Aberdeen Asset Management business earlier this decade, is said to be amicable.

Roche said it had not been “an easy decision”, but he wanted “to bring my own fresh approach to investing”.

Covestone will formally open for business at the start of October. It will only invest directly in various asset classes and will not be involved in selling commission-based products or have any other commission-based income.

“The team has built an investment model that is based on current market circumstances and how best to respond to the unprecedented volatility we are experiencing,” Roche said.

Irish pension managed funds recorded a 3 per cent rise in August, as the stock market rally that dates back to March continued, according to Hewitt.

The funds, however, are still 11 per cent off where they were a year ago.

Roche, whose father of the same name was a founder of CRH, has had a busy time of late.

He is also a director of McInerney, the listed property group which this week took a €156 million impairment charge on its British and Irish landbank.