Hymans Robertson Investment Services (HRIS) has said the Consumer Duty has led to an uptick in questions from financial advisers.
Its chief investment officer (CIO) and head of wealth investment William Marshall said advisers retain responsibility for any outsourced service under the Consumer Duty.
Due to this HRIS has received more questions from advisers asking the company: how large and experienced is your team, what is your depth of resources and what is your process?
Marshall said he believes that Consumer Duty is driving this uptick in questions.
He added advisers want “confidence” in that the people working with them do the right job.
Marshall went onto say the Consumer Duty has also increased interest in HRIS.
Regardless, advisers are taking Consumer Duty “really seriously”.
An issue he can see with the Consumer Duty is that due to the way certain parts of it were written it “could be open to interpretation and so it will be interesting to see how people interpret parts of it”.
Still, a big part of Consumer Duty is making sure “everything is written down and evidenced” and a lot of advisers have created work groups focused on the implementation of Consumer Duty.
In 2019 HRIS launched its discretionary model portfolio service, the Tailored Portfolio Service (TPS).
Marshall said that “advisers see real value in it” as it “aligns with the advisers advice process”.
HRIS said: “TPS offers model portfolios, managed to an adviser firm’s mandate specifications, still using its own brand.”
At the time Marshall said: “Financial advisers perform an important role in helping individuals meet their financial goals. By working with them to build model portfolios which are in their name and aligned to their investment process we can give them the means to successfully fulfilling that role.”
HRIS acts as a discretionary fund manager (DFM) as well as offering independent pensions, investments, benefits and risk consulting services.
