Why consider a Discretionary Fund Manager (DFM)?

With more than 4,000 funds to choose from, the job of a DFM is to build a range of investment portfolios that:

  • Are well diversified in terms of different asset classes
  • Offer different levels of risk to meet the needs of different clients
  • Include funds we believe will grow and protect your wealth over the long term

We are happy to continue with the advisory arrangements where your adviser consults you before making changes to your portfolio. But our discretionary investment allows us to take decisions on your behalf, based on the level of risk you have agreed and has several advantages for you.

In particular, it allows us to:

  • Build close relationships with fund managers: to ensure managers deliver on our clients’ expectations
  • Be more dynamic in changing economic times: to allow us to make changes to your portfolio when time is crucial.
  • Be better able to take advantage of potential opportunities: exploring investments in growing sectors or to take advantage of funds that are more competitively priced
  • Mitigate some of the operational risks: by rebalancing your portfolio when the time is right, rather than at fixed dates. It also saves you having to remember to deal with reminders to take action.

Our DFM service also allows us to keep better track of your money and manage it more efficiently than under the advisory service.

There is an additional charge for our DFM services (some of which may be subject to VAT). The actual cost will depend on the service recommended by your adviser and will be fully disclosed before any investments are made on your behalf.

What we offer you

- 18 model portfolios including 4 separate mandates: Active, Passive, Responsible and Hybrid

- £0.5 billion in funds under management

- A common-sense approach to investing money

- Our investment committee includes senior advisers and external economists – to challenge opinions and avoid an ‘echo chamber’ of viewpoints

- Regular monitoring, with monthly factsheets to update you on performance

- Established high-quality DFM services since April 2018

How we get the best from our managers

We want the fund managers we work with to be good – not just lucky.

This means looking past short-term performance figures and closely monitoring them to aim for long-term investment performance.

We meet all managers face-to-face, so that we’re happy their investment philosophy and teams are the right fit for you.

Looking at the big picture

Our investment committee starts with the big picture. What world events and political movements are changing the dial for your investments? How does this affect our portfolio positioning?

We also watch inflation carefully, and target returns above the consumer price index. This helps us as we design a plan to match your financial future based on real post-inflation returns.

We can react to the changing economic climate, to help give you peace of mind about the long term performance of your portfolio.

Being responsible investors

Many of our clients are looking to do more than grow their wealth, as they increasingly demand their investments contribute to the greater good as well.

Responsible investing, and paying greater attention to ESG (environment, social and governance factors), is a fast-growing area of our business.

Investing responsibly no longer means compromising returns. As well as delivering a positive impact on the environment and society our aim is that funds in our portfolios also deliver long-term financial returns.

If you’d like to know more about our responsible investment and positive impact investing funds, please talk to us