ESG InvestingMay 4 2021

Dynamic Planner launches tool to assess clients' ESG appetite

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Dynamic Planner launches tool to assess clients' ESG appetite
Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Financial advisers will be able to use a psychometric questionnaire to understand their clients’ appetite for sustainable investments for the first time this week.

Dynamic Planner launches its sustainability questionnaire on Friday, which aims to solve the challenges advisers face when assessing their clients’ individual environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing preferences. 

The questionnaire has been designed by Louis Williams in consultation with focus groups of advisers and tested by 1,000 investors. 

Williams, head of psychology and behavioural insights at Dynamic Planner, said sustainable investing is not straightforward and preferences can be complex and encompass a broad range of factors. 

He said: “Expectations of the impact it can have can be misjudged, along with the importance and balance clients place on potential returns and their sustainability preferences.

"The key to fully understanding the ESG and sustainability hopes and expectations of a client is real engagement, so that their preferences can be accurately captured and the implications of their choices discussed.

"Bringing together psychology and statistics in the form of our Sustainable Insight questionnaire enables us to help advisers cut through the noise and really understand how someone might feel and act both in the short and long-term.”

The news comes after the firm added an abundance of sustainable investing fund research in its tools, to help advisers match clients to suitable portfolios.

The addition provided advisers with access to research across 36 ESG issues for more than 36,000 funds, derived from the analysis of 8,500 companies and more than 680,000 equity and fixed income securities globally.

Ben Goss, chief executive of Dynamic Planner said: “Our psychometric sustainable investing questionnaire is an industry first, built on a combination of the robust academic thinking of schools of psychology and statistics. And importantly, in tandem with investors and advisers.

“Combined with our sustainable investing insight launched earlier this year, we will be able to help advice firms deliver more deeply valuable and bespoke financial plans in line with clients ESG preferences.”

sally.hickey@ft.com