Proposition used to be a back-office product job. Now it's one of the most commercial seats in the business. Proposition leaders decide what a firm builds, how it's priced, how it shows value under Consumer Duty, and how it reaches the advisers or customers it's meant for.
The good ones have the authority to challenge investment and product specialists and to make the calls: build it, change it or close it. They understand pricing, value assessments and distribution economics, and they know how advisers or end customers actually use what's being built. In targeted support and simplified advice, it's usually the first seat a firm needs to fill.
It's also where hires most often go wrong. Firms end up with either a strong technician who can't take the business with them, or a broad generalist without the depth to hold their ground. The right person sits between the two, and finding them starts with being clear about which way the role should lean.
The roles I place
- Chief Proposition Officers
- Directors and Heads of Proposition
- Investment Proposition Directors
- Heads of Product
- Retirement and targeted support proposition leads
Where I place them
- Life and retirement providers
- Investment platforms
- DFMs
- Asset managers
- Banks and neobanks
Who I've worked with
I'm currently running a retained search for a Director of Investment Proposition at a major UK life company.
How I work
Exclusive or retained, one brief at a time. That means a proper look across the whole market rather than the first ten CVs on a database, and a shortlist of people I've actually spoken to. Usually four, not forty.
If you're hiring into proposition or product, I'd like to hear about it.