In July, Casterbridge Wealth won the highly-coveted ‘Best Discretionary Fund Manager’ honours at the 2020 Money Marketing Awards. All this week we are sharing the ingredients that we believe helped drive this success…
In the last of our ‘A recipe for baking a Multi Award-Winning DFM Business’ series we take a look at the lack of ‘group think’ in our business and the importance of a ‘client first’ culture…
Original thought – instead of ‘group think’
We offer Financial Advisers and their clients a departure from traditional – often restrictive – investment thinking. Most investment companies employ a hierarchical top down decision-making structure – where portfolio managers determine portfolio construction, based on a particular benchmark, and the investment team is expected to reinforce the manager’s views. But we are confident enough to do things differently. The experience, and the closeness, of our investment team means we are ready to challenge conventional wisdom if it serves the needs of our clients.
Our quarterly investment meetings include members of the investment team, as well as experienced external Financial Advisers that provide independent oversight. They are there to challenge the robustness of the process and ensure that each strategy continues to meet its return and risk objectives for clients. At the same time, they understand the importance of investment agility that leads to better outcomes for clients.
Understand and respecting the adviser/client relationship
We recognise that some financial adviser firms are reluctant to build relationships with discretionary fund managers because they worry that their clients could at some point be stolen from them, or they will relinquish control over the investment relationship. But we start with the fundamental belief that we can make the lives of Financial Advisers easier. We have no legacy ownership issues that could cause conflicts of interest. In other words, we focus on managing the investments, and you focus on the relationship with your clients. You wouldn’t want it any other way.
A client-first culture the drives positive outcomes
However, while we are respectful of the adviser client relationship, we consider it our responsibility to work closely with financial advisers to deliver fully on their clients’ needs. We never lose sight of the fact that we have been given the responsibility to look after your client’s financial future, so we are committed to delivering the highest levels of client service and performance.
In Summary…
Winning awards is an indicator that your approach is working and getting noticed. But for us, it is far more important that the Financial Advisers we work with believe their relationship with us is:
Helping them to improve their product offering and generate new business
Freeing up more time to focus on relationship building with existing clients
Reducing the time and cost burden involved with managing client investments
We understand the importance of creating portfolios built to withstand difficult conditions. It’s why we call our seven managed portfolios the ‘Hardy’ range. But our success is because Financial Advisers know we have their best interests at heart, which is ultimately why they recognise us as their complete investment partner.
Important Information
This update is for information only and does not constitute advice or a recommendation and you should not make any investment decisions on the basis of it. The views and opinions within this document are those of Casterbridge Wealth at time of writing and may change without notice. They should not be viewed as indicating any guarantee of return from an investment managed by Casterbridge Wealth nor as advice of any nature. Past performance is not a guide to the future. The value of an investment and any income from it may go down as well as up and the investor may not get back the original amount invested.
