Advisory businesses will have had to meet a wide range of regulatory requirements to continue to operate compliantly post-RDR.
However, once 2013 arrives there will be continuing demands on advice both from a regulatory and operational perspective, which advisers will need to meet head on to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the new advice era.
To thrive post-RDR, advisory businesses will need to:
• Ensure they comply with the RDR’s requirements
• Maximise their chargeable time with clients
• More than ever, demonstrate their value to clients
To succeed in these areas, advisers will need to have access to comprehensive and unbiased research to support compliant advice, with a solution that supports them to deliver a professional service and output while facilitating an efficient advice process.
There will be increasing expectations of advice and the research that underpins it. Whether independent or restricted, the unique breadth and depth of data within Defaqto Engage provides all the research you require. Defaqto Engage provides access to our comprehensive data on products, funds and platforms – including DFMs, Exchange Traded Funds, Investment Trusts and Structured Products. Defaqto Engage also covers banks’ and direct products to provide a truly comprehensive view.
Advisers will also need to demonstrate that they have followed a compliant advice process. Defaqto Engage enables advisers easily to filter the product, platform and funds universe to a shortlist and recommendation – with a clear and robust audit trail that helps you meet FSA requirements.
To spend more - and therefore chargeable - time with clients, advisers will need to minimise the amount of time they spend on research. Streamlining the research process and standardising related workflows and outputs will be critical. Defaqto Engage allows you to conduct integrated three-way product, platform and fund research all in one place. For example, you can look at how funds and platforms interplay and how products and platforms interact. You can choose your research start point - product, platform or fund first - and easily identify how different combinations across these three areas link together. Undertaking this work manually or from separate systems would be time consuming, if indeed achievable at all. All the data you need is uniquely now in one place.
Given the introduction of adviser charging, there will be an even greater need for advisers to evidence their research and demonstrate value to clients post-2012. Advisers will need to provide high quality output to their client, both in terms of demonstrating the in-depth research they have undertaken and presenting it in a way that meets the standards their client expects. Defaqto Engage not only provides access to our market-leading data, it also offers advanced functionality to enable advisers to comprehensively analyse this data and enables you to generate clear and professional client-facing output to demonstrate the research you have conducted.
In conclusion, having access to the right research tools is going to be more important than ever in the post-RDR world. Solutions will need to provide access to comprehensive and unbiased data AND offer the functionality to enable advisers to thrive in the new advice era – ultimately, to support professional, efficient and compliant advice. Defaqto Engage does just that for both independent and restricted advice models.
