Portfolio construction and our partnership with Square Mile

Back in April 2019, we undertook an extensive due diligence process of our investment offering. We were enjoying a good working relationship with our then investment research team. However, after they were purchased by a private equity group, there was a change to their business model which did not fit with our company values or our client proposition.

Starting with a blank piece of paper, we asked ourselves what we wanted to achieve with our investment process. Applying our SK ROC principle to our decision-making framework, (what can you control, what can you influence, what is outside of your control), we highlighted five key things we wanted our clients to benefit from:

• Portfolios that were constructed based on risk.
• Portfolios that factored in the cost of investment management.
• Portfolios that capped the costs of the fund management fees.
• Regular reviews of these fees.
• Regular reviews of our client service proposition.

And we wanted to work with a company that shared in our mission statement of putting you, our client at the centre of everything that we do; that spoke in plain English (no financial jargon) and that we could build an enjoyable, educational and progressive working relationship with.

We identified Square Mile Investment Consulting and Research (Square Mile) as our investment partner of choice. And it has proven to be a good one. We strongly believe Square Mile have further improved our investment capability and helped us to deliver the best outcomes for our clients.

Like us, Square Mile’s Chief Executive Officer, Richard Romer-Lee, believes that everything should begin and end with the client’s needs:

“The client is always right. If you put your client first and do right by them, everything else will fall into place.”

Our partnership with Square Mile provides our clients with model portfolios created by one of the strongest and most experienced research teams in the UK retail investment market. It allows our clients to benefit from competitively priced portfolios and, in many instances, make savings compared to their current portfolios whilst not compromising on performance.

In line with our focus on trying to reduce costs for our clients we are now able to deliver a fund cap on the ongoing fund charge of our blended portfolios of 0.55%.  We also offer the option of a range of passive portfolio which are capped at 0.13%. Please do get in touch if you would like to find out more.