Investment ratings firm FE has launched an investment planner tool called FE Analytics+.
The research firm said the planning tool is a step-by-step investment process to help advisers meet suitability requirements and deliver consistent investment advice.
It is designed to help advisers assess clients’ attitude to risk, discuss and select suitable investment options and summarise the investment advice process in client friendly reports.
It is also fully customisable to advisers’ business models and preferred investment solutions.
Matthew Surfleet, commercial director at FE, said: “Establishing suitability, including discussing the risk a customer is willing and able to take and mapping appropriate investment solutions, is critical for all financial advisers. However, the processes employed to achieve this are often manual, inefficient and can vary, even within the same firm."
With the tool, advisers will have the freedom to map any investment solution to the most suitable risk profile.
This is because the existing FE Risk Score will be used as a measure of the relative riskiness of a portfolio and this is applied to the whole of the market. No provider pays to be rated.
A survey of advisers by FE last year revealed that nearly 60 per cent do not use technology in support of their centralised investment processes.
This is despite almost all highlighting the need for a one-stop solution that helps with researching, selecting and investing clients’ money.
In a recent review of risk profiling tools, former FCA regulator Rory Percival recommended that advisers ensure they are comfortable with the mapping of investment solutions to the client risk categories, reminding them that responsibility for the suitability of advice remains theirs.
Mr Surfleet said: “As FE Analytics is already used by 84 per cent of the UK’s top 100 advisers for investment research and reporting, it made sense to evolve the technology to provide the one-stop, independent investment process advisers were calling for.”
Adam Herbert, managing director of IFA Herbert & Webster, has already begun using FE Analytics+ Investment Planner. He said: “The investment planner brings all steps and processes together from the attitude to risk questionnaire, capacity for loss, the asset allocation, risk banding to the investment solution.
“It allows us to service all clients with all suitable investment solutions within a single software solution.”
