FE has been supporting the financial advice sector for over 20 years. In our first in-depth research report of the financial advisory industry we look at how Advisers business models are changing and how they are researching and evaluating funds and Asset Managers. The financial advisory community is a broad and diverse one, with no set model for making fund selections that could be described as typical so how do the Asset Management community engage with Advisers to better understand their businesses.
Years of regulatory pressure on firms to improve their investment selection processes is taking effect, with advisory businesses responding to this challenge in different ways.
Advisers are still in the process of evolving their value propositions, working out the parts of the value chain where they can deliver, the parts of the advice process for which they feel comfortable taking responsibility and the ways they can both manage and harness the threat and opportunity of new technology.
Whichever financial advice model they adopt, advisers are searching far and wide for the best investment solutions for their clients. Advisers are not awestruck by big reputations, dropping star managers and abandoning major fund houses when they believe they no longer meet their clients’ needs.
The devolved and bespoke nature of the UK’s financial advice firms allows businesses to use their autonomy to their advantage, evolving and experimenting with the services they provide in order to provide customers with the best possible financial and investment advice.
FE carried out this report to inform the debate around adviser business models – how they are managing risk, making fund selections, using technology and ultimately investing on behalf of their clients. This report comprises data from questionnaires completed by over 180 advisers in the period (December 2015 to January 2016), as well as other market data from FE.
Evolution and Experimentation is a significant research report aimed at fund managers and advisers. It's priced at £1,495 plus VAT.