We don’t give financial advice. We are an investment manager.
I think the RDR is fantastic. We are often party to closed groups of people who will curse the regulator for being around.
I wish everybody had a bird’s eye view of global regulation and how lucky we are to be in the UK. The FCA is so forward thinking.
The FSA were the ones that got us started. The contact with the FCA and their willingness to engage has been incredible.
From a consumer’s perspective, the FCA is championing transparency and innovation. That means we are going to be in a far stronger position as a community, as a sector, as an industry, in the UK.
Companies are coming to fill this gap which has been left and allow people with £10,000 to have a choice between buying a fund because they have seen it on the tube – something named after a planet – or have a proper portfolio that they would get if they had £5 million.
For too long in our industry we’ve been taking things that are simple, making them complicated and then charging to translate them. That’s not fair and it’s not really a great product.
I think almost everybody in the investment world is keen to support the principles of transparency. I’m just not sure the systems and cultures of the institutions are set up.
I don’t ever meet someone who says, “I want to be less transparent.” But, for example, discretionary fund managers don’t display performance.
People need to say, “This is how we do stuff, this is what we charge and if you think we’re worth it then go for it.” The investment management sector may end up being behind IFAs because the advice sector has been forced to do this by RDR.
I’m as much to blame as anyone else on this, but we use words like ‘discretionary’. Discretionary doesn’t really mean anything to anyone outside the financial community.
I think consumers are very interested in financial services. I think they are interested in having control over their money.
There’s the idea that, because it’s finance, we’ve got to use long words. I think consumers then get fed up.
We have so many different products that basically describe the same thing, Pep, Isa and Tessa and things like that. We often add a layer of complexity that leaves people doubting our ability to perform sufficiently in the first place.
It’s just as much up to us to empower the consumer to understand and to be involved with financial services as it is for the consumer to make the effort.
Engagement of customers is a massive issue. If we do not speak to them in ways they understand and be honest, open and transparent with them, then at some stage they will revolt.
One of the things that’s overlooked is that finance isn’t that fun. Doing your finance is a bit of a chore and it should never be like that.
An online DFM business has never been done before because the incumbents have made so much profit doing business the way they have. Why bother expanding your client base and having to work with all the administration?
Ten years ago, when I first started using internet banking, I was a bit cautious. But within three or four months it was “au revoir” to the branch, and this is what’s happening here.
The amount of people using Hargreaves Lansdown is fantastic. People are getting accustomed to dealing with their investments online now.
Traditionally clients have been asked “what’s your attitude to risk?” If you can understand that, that’s fantastic, but most people would say, “I don’t know, medium?”
I went to California and did an MBA at Stanford. The CEO of Google at the time, Eric Schmidt was teaching a class when I put the business plan together.
I have someone who helps me with the set-up of my pension, but I do most of it myself if I’m honest. It’s just nice to bat ideas around with them.
All my money is invested in Nutmeg. Everything I have is handed over to the investment team here, so I have to have great faith in them.
I would like to see one clearly defined, easily explained price for all investment management services. Let’s all be on the same level playing field, let’s calculate it in the same way, let’s show exactly what we’re charging.
Risk is not ‘doing something’; risk is ‘not doing something’.
I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up, or James Bond. I have been a teacher and I’ve got a couple of years before I’m old enough to be James Bond.
