Steven Bell, global chief economist at Deutsche Asset Management (DeAM) in the UK, has been appointed as investment head of its new multi-asset investment unit, as part of the firm's creation of seven specialist UK teams.

The firm is splitting itself into smaller units in response to the decline in the popularity of balanced mandates. DeAM runs €90bn ($115bn) in assets in the UK, almost a third of which is in traditional balanced or multi-asset funds, which are managed by large teams.