AJ Bell Investcentre has launched a service designed to help financial advisers with investment research and due diligence on funds and ETFs.
The tool, named Fundamentals and launched today (September 9), gives advisers free access to AJ Bell’s investment research and analysis of the funds and ETFs the team believes will achieve their stated investment objective.
It currently covers 77 funds and ETFs selected by AJ Bell’s investment team using the same research process that is used for the AJ Bell funds and managed portfolio service, alongside independent oversight from AJ Bell’s investment committee.
Billy Mackay, marketing director at AJ Bell Investcentre, said: “Investment research is a core activity for many financial advisers and they will all have their own process and methodology ingrained within their businesses.
“But we know that they are always on the lookout for simple tools to help enhance their own approach or to reduce the time spent trawling through investment material.”
Mr Mackay said AJ Bell had developed the Fundamentals tool to provide access to the investment research expertise it had within the business.
Fundamentals has a filtering tool that enables advisers to search for specific criteria aligned with their clients’ needs.
Filter options include sector, active v passive, fund size and Ongoing Charges Figure (OCF).
The selected funds are then displayed with their OCF and investment performance over year to date, three years and five years.
Each fund also comes with a short summary of why the AJ Bell investment team rates the portfolio as well as the full AJ Bell report, the fund’s fact sheet and KIID.
The full AJ Bell report — which explains how the fund operates, its investment style, performance, split of assets and portfolio holdings as well as a snapshot view of key metrics such as its ISIN, sector, Morningstar rating, dividend yield and history, number of holdings and size — can be downloaded to be included in an adviser’s due diligence file.
The Fundamentals list will be monitored and updated on an ongoing basis to help advisers keep on top of changes in the fund management industry.
imogen.tew@ft.com
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