Ensuring the right fit for the client
Once the initial due diligence is complete, the next step is matching the solution to the client and ensuring it continues to be the right product for the job. The focus for many advisers is less on absolute performance and more on risk appetite, investment outcomes and cost.
Mr Stammers says many clients see their investments simply as a means to an end. “They’re less concerned about what they’re invested in and instead care about what they achieve.”
For that reason, he says it is important to ensure a fund is continually achieving the right outcome for the client.
“One of the big issues that advisers need to consider is the one-size-fits-all notion,” Mr Stammers says. “Clients change, so you need to keep things under review and make sure the fund’s suitability hasn’t changed.”
Alasdair Walker, chartered financial planner at Hunter, Aitkenhead & Walker, says his firm uses a mixture of multi-asset discretionary fund management solutions and more traditional multi-asset model portfolios. He says his firm conducts annual reviews at a provider and fund level as part of its ongoing due diligence process.
Mr Walker says while today’s multi-asset funds are a major improvement over the multi-manager funds and other solutions seen just 10 years ago, this does not mean they can not improve further.
Indeed, one area where multi-asset still has room for improvement, he adds, is around cost to the client – and that issue is still ongoing.
Geordie Clarke is a freelance financial journalist
