Morley Fund Management said yesterday that it would not immediately seek a replacement for Chris Phillips, its incoming chief executive, after the death of the respected asset manager last Wednesday.

Mr Phillips’s death has left two of Britain’s leading fund managers leaderless. Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (Swip), by which Mr Phillips remained employed, has not found a new chief executive in the three months since he signalled his intention to leave.

Morley said yesterday that its board “will be considering necessary next steps in due course” and that it was too soon to think about how its top job may now be filled.

Mr Phillips, who was 50, resigned from Swip in January to take up the role at Morley but had begun his gardening leave only last week. He was at the beginning of a walking tour in the Pyrenees when he struck what locals described as the worst weather in living memory. It is understood that Mr Phillips was forced to spend a night in the mountains and, although found alive, later died in hospital.

Archie Kane, the chief executive of Scottish Widows, said yesterday that Mr Phillips “had played a significant part in reestablishing Swip as a leading player in the competitive asset management sector”. Mr Kane said: “He’ll be greatly missed by all who knew him.”

A spokeswoman for Swip said that the company’s search for a new chief executive was ongoing. The business is currently being run by the existing management team.

Sources said that attempts by Morley and Swip to find new leadership may run into difficulty, given the record of many fund management houses in attracting and retaining talent. “It’s not necessarily a job people want to stick with,” a source said.

Others said that fund management companies that tried to bring in managers from outside the industry had run into problems. “It hasn’t been littered with success,” a source said. “It’s like being a football manager without having played football.”

Mr Phillips had been with Swip only three years years when he announced his resignation, to succeed Keith Jones at Morley. Mr Jones had run the company for seven years when he resigned last November and left at the end of the year. He is now believed to be pursuing board roles.

Weeks after Mr Phillips’s appointment, Katherine Garrett-Cox, Morley’s chief investment officer, announced plans to leave for a new job with Alliance Trust.

Last October Morley’s head of equities, Tim Thomas, departed. Mr Thomas had been brought into the business by Ms Garrett-Cox from Mc-Kinsey in 2005. Morley also made five equity managers redundant at the end of last year.

Other fund managers have also seen recent changes at the top of the company. Alain Grisay joined F&C Asset Management in January last year and has had a torrid 12 months, with a serious outflow of mandates necessitating a turn-around plan.

Last month Insight Investment Management announced that Douglas Ferran, its chief executive, would become its chairman, making way for Abdallah Nauphal, currently deputy chief executive, to move into the top job.

Fund stewards

£2,800bn

Total assets managed by UK investment managers

£530bn

Retail assets managed by UK investment managers

6

UK investment managers with more than £100 billion under management

31

Percentage market share of the UK’s five largest fund managers

Times Recommends

• Gazprom brands Ukraine 'a barbarian' in gas row
• Services sector raises fears over UK jobless
• Retailers surge as profits survive sales plunge