FE’s Analytics+ addresses the advisory industry’s growing need for a streamlined solution to researching, comparing, selecting and investing clients’ funds that not only eases the pressures of an evolving regulatory landscape – but also highlights the true value of advice.
- FE Analytics+ is the new name for the range of services offered by FE to drive an adviser’s investment proposition; helping them make better investment decisions, demonstrate regulatory compliance, and communicate effectively with both clients and the industry.
- Launch of FE Academy – training and support for FE Analytics+ clients
In a recent survey of 171 advisers carried out late last year, ratings, research and investment data specialists FE learnt that nearly 60 per cent of respondents do not use technology in support of their centralised investment processes – although almost all highlighted the importance and need for a one-stop solution that helps with researching, selecting and investing clients’ money.
Given the stringent requirements from the Financial Conduct Authority for a robust, repeatable and transparent investment process – advisers who are failing to effectively use technology in the advice process are either placing themselves at risk, or at the very least they are running very inefficient manual operational processes.
In response to the survey, FE have launched FE Analytics+ the new name for the range of services now offered by the firm which are designed to drive an adviser’s investment proposition; helping them make better investment decisions, demonstrate regulatory compliance, and communicate effectively with both clients and the industry.
Mark Chanda, head of distribution, at FE said: “Currently over 80 per cent of the top 100 Financial Adviser firms in the UK use FE’s products and services – and having spoken to the industry it was apparent that we needed to evolve our existing products and bring all our new products for advisers under one banner to support them in their business goals –to demonstrate the value of their investment advice, provide better client service and remain compliant.”
The new combined proposition of Analytics+ not only provides the ability to research and review client’s investments, whether they are individual funds, managers, DFMs or model portfolios, but there is also a range of risk optimised model portfolios created by FE which are targeted at the complete range of investor risk profiles and designed to produce superior risk adjusted returns.
Importantly, the adviser can also use the tools within Analytics+ to analyse the validity of the approach they have recommended to clients and fulfil their due diligence requirements.
Other developments to the FE Analytics+ range include enhancements in reporting and an FE Analytics+ Digital module. This is designed to help advisers provide an easy-to-use solution for information hungry investors and clients by offering a range of intuitive templates that can be easily added to a website or user interface to display fund and/or portfolio data as factsheets, charts, comparison reports and more.
As part of the launch of Analytics+ FE have also created a new training centre of excellence – The FE Academy, to support its adviser clients in maximising the potential from the enhanced tools. The time spent in training can be used towards the adviser’s structured CPD points.
Mark Gilder, director at Westcourt Financial Services Ltd, said: “FE are continually developing and enhancing the products they offer to financial advisory businesses and bringing together all their adviser solutions under one proposition makes sense to demonstrate to adviser firms how FE can support their businesses overall.
“We are very pleased with FE and have been since we first started using their adviser tools, first for simply performance tracking and charting, then more in depth research followed by using the system to run our own model portfolios. We use FE Analytics and have recently added FE Invest which has significantly streamlined our fund research process as part of our own portfolios.
"We are now moving towards using the FE Invest Core Model Portfolios for a significant portion of our client bank. The last addition for us has been to adopt the FE Attitude to Risk Questionnaire and Wealth-Manager system which is a very good straight through process for risk assessment, asset allocation, fund selection and reporting.”
