Quilter has launched three training modules to help advisers fit environmental, social and governance factors into their advice process.
In line with the Financial Conduct Authority's guidance, the firm said its responsible investment training modules are designed to help advisers understand and embed ESG factors into their business.
The first module ‘understanding responsible and sustainable investment’ is being rolled out now, with the remaining modules, which include practical advice on how advisers can incorporate ESG into their advice process, following thereafter. The modules count as structured CPD.
David Tiller, commercial and propositions director at Quilter, said: “Against the backdrop of growing consumer interest, there has been a proliferation of ESG-badged products in recent years, so it should be no surprise that the FCA has put it front and centre of its agenda.
“With this increased scrutiny, it is vital advisers get this right and embed ESG effectively into their processes.”
Alongside the training, Quilter is expanding its flagship WealthSelect managed portfolio service, looking to triple the number of options available to advisers’ clients.
This expansion will see the introduction of 32 responsible and sustainable portfolios to the Quilter platform with a range of investment management styles.
Quilter said the changes will allow advisers to deliver a more personalised service to a wide range of clients and accommodate various levels of ESG in their preferred management style, aligned to the client’s appetite for risk.
Tiller said: “Rather than simply launch a new range of portfolios, we have thought long and hard about how ESG should be accommodated alongside other client requirements as part of a regulated advice process.
“I am proud that Quilter has chosen to do this the right way, working through the needs of advisers and clients before developing our solutions. Doing this has meant us committing to an unprecedented expansion of our flagship WealthSelect portfolio range.”
The WealthSelect MPS range launched in 2014 and now manages more than £9.6bn (as at December 31) from 64,000 investors across 1,800 adviser firms.
Tiller added: “We have always prided ourselves on our commitment to invest responsibly and we are excited we will be able to support advisers in more precisely matching their clients’ needs to suitable solutions both through this training and the new WealthSelect options coming soon.”
Last year, Aegon’s 2021 adviser attitudes report found 41 per cent of advisers had seen an increase in ESG requests from their clients throughout 2020.
The most common change, one that 30 per cent of advisers said they had implemented, was to revise client fact finds to ask outright about ESG preferences.
Another change made by more than one in five advisers (22 per cent) was to increase the ESG options they offered through their centralised investment propositions.
sonia.rach@ft.com
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