Advisers have ‘box seat’ to add value

Financial advisers can create additional value by managing their clients’ investments, according to Financial Simplicity.

Financial Simplicity chief executive, Stuart Holdsworth, said breaking down the overall investing process into component parts was an area his firm had seen an increasing focus on.

Holdsworth said this allowed advisers to take more responsibility in the investing process and lower the advice cost.

“This approach reduces the amount of external functions and external costs ultimately so advisers can engage with their clients more with them taking part of the investing process, rather than all being outsourced to product providers,” he said.

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“The reality is when all the investments are managed by somebody else there's opportunity for the client to move to another adviser if they're not getting sufficient value.

“We find the firms that are managing investment portfolios and advice have an opportunity to not only create additional value but can also demonstrate that value as part of their value proposition.”

Holdsworth said advisers were in a “box seat” to introduce new investment functions that broke down the traditional product distribution model

“For example, they may be helping the client be more tax smart about the way that they manage their investments, something that a product provider is disadvantaged to be able to do because they don't have a relationship with the client,” he said.

“They are actually involved in the management of the investments and they can do so engaged with the client, adding value, and demonstrating an increased value proposition.”