Platform giant Cofunds intends to extend its self-directed service by providing access to 50 funds approved by Square Mile Investment Consulting & Research.
The UK’s biggest platform for financial advisers first told Investment Adviser last year roughly 500 advisers who use Cofunds had had self-directed services created to enable some of their clients to run their own portfolios.
The move was a significant departure for the intermediary platform, although it reiterated last week it had no plans to break into the direct-to-consumer market. It stated that it would offer the service only as a solution for end clients that advisers might struggle to service in the post-RDR world.
The service, set to be branded as the ‘Cofunds Investor Portal’, will point to a list of 50 funds that have been approved by Square Mile’s managing director Richard Romer-Lee.
Stephen Wynne-Jones, Cofunds’ head of marketing, said: “Customers who use this service will still have a relationship with their advisers, which is a key part of the proposition.”
But he noted “in the main these customers will be transacting for themselves”.
The move by Cofunds comes in the wake of the RDR, which has ushered in explicit fees for advice – a cost that had historically been ‘bundled’ into the price of funds.
This has led to some investors becoming ‘orphaned’, as the level of their assets was not enough to justify the fees for giving them advice.
The platform said it was aiming to provide this service so advisers would not have to remove these clients from their books.
