Standard and Poor's (S&P) Investment Consulting director Simon Ibbetson is leaving the group on March 31.

Ibbetson and S&P Investment Consulting associate director Veronica Klaus will be joining Sydney-based Grove Research and Advisory.

Grove has been in operation since 1991 and advises on over $2.6 billion in client funds.

S&P announced earlier this month that their consulting business would not pitch for any new institutional business and would concentrate on the retail/wholesale market.

"Simon and Veronica have reflected on that and decided that their aspirations remain in the institutional space rather than the retail space and have decided that they would like to purse that role in another organisation," S&P Australia managing director Chris Dalton said.

S&P will also boost staff numbers following the signing, last year, of contracts to supply fund ratings and research services to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and more than 300 planners and 55 dealer groups through independent platform provider Netwealth.

"We are looking to add two to three additional staff to bolster our resources to service the financial planning groups we already have and those we are targeting as new clients," Dalton said.

The research house also has a longstanding agreement to provide ratings and research to St George platform Asgard and its dealer group Securitor, a legacy of S&P acquisition of Assirt in 2005.