Huljich Wealth Management has appointed Investment Research Group (IRG) chief investment officer David McEwen as an external consultant to its investment committee.

As part of a Securities Commission probe, Huljich Wealth Management rewrote its investor statements for retirement fund returns after previous returns did not show former managing director Peter Huljich had made two payments totalling $150,000 in periods ending March 2008 and March 2009 as compensation for investment decisions he made.

Mr Huljich said he felt morally responsible for the investment decisions and there was no intention of boosting the funds' performance.

This month Huljich Wealth Management chairman and former Reserve Bank governor Don Brash took over as managing director and chief investment officer of the company. He said Mr Huljich had accepted responsibility for lapses at the company.

In a statement today, Huljich Wealth Management said that in his job at IRG, Mr McEwen oversaw research and commentary on 400 companies, and wrote a weekly investment report.

IRG said that while Mr McEwen undertook a consulting role at Huljich Wealth Management, there would be no change to his role at IRG.