Combined banking and investments: a case study
Background
One of our private bankers talks to Interface about an experience
he had recently in dealing with an IFA, based in London. The IFA's
choice of platforms had some shortfalls in providing a superior
service to his HNW clients with the difficulties outlined
below:
- More than one platform was being used for his investments
(including investments into SIPPS and QROPS)
- He was restricted by the limitations of the chosen platforms -
the full range of private banking services, required by a number of
his HNW clients, were not all available through the various
platforms and this made them particularly restrictive
- The platforms could not provide banking services alongside the
standard investment dealing facilities.
He also did not currently offer discretionary investment
management within his portfolio of services and he felt that
offering his HNW clients the full suite of banking and investment
services, all supplied by one provider, was attractive.
How did we help the IFA simplify his use of
platforms?
Once I explained the features and capabilities of our
fully integrated Focus account, backed by a superior service
offering, its appeal to the IFA became clear. The compelling
reasons he expressed, lie in the fact that Focus can:
- offer both banking and investment services via one single
platform
- produce one consolidated monthly report
- simplify administration
- reduce paperwork
- potentially save time and costs that could be employed more
efficiently elsewhere.
When I further mentioned the multi-currency accounts, gold
status Visa cards, and structured products, all available within
Focus, I started to notice the enthusiasm of the IFA increasing as
he stated, in his own words, "this makes a great deal of
sense".
I explained to him that our service proposition and
culture, which underpins all of the above features, were a
very important part of the offering. As part of our client service
standards, he will:
- be greeted with a human voice at the end of the telephone and
98%* of the time his call will be answered within three rings
- have a dedicated relationship manager who will deal with his
various banking and investment queries.
How did we help the IFA increase the range of investment
services he offers his clients?
The IFA felt that our discretionary
investment management services could be suitable for a
number of his clients as he was impressed by the investment
management process, philosophy and portfolio performance
during the last three years, where we have witnessed some of the
most testing markets in living memory. I explained that our
investment team consisted of investment professionals, private
bankers, management and treasury members and we believe this
balance of views contributes to us really being in touch with
markets and our clients' needs. It is not just an academic
number-crunching process that we employ in the management of our
discretionary investment portfolios.
By outsourcing part of his asset management process, to a
professional discretionary manager like ourselves, he felt it
would:
- improve his client offering
- save valuable research time in selecting and managing the
appropriate asset mix that would match each client's risk
profile
- provide him with a number of different risk profiled
multi-asset class portfolios
- also offer him access to a discretionary bond portfolio, where
income needs are present.
What's happening now?
After all these details were covered during the first few meetings,
the IFA decided to proceed and is now in the process of investing
his first clients through Fairbairn Private Bank, both managing
assets via Focus and utilising our discretionary investment
management services.
Through the use of Focus he has achieved time-savings and cost
efficiency, giving him more time to concentrate on servicing his
clients, rather than being tied up in administration.
By investing into our discretionary investment management
services he now has the opportunity to offer professional,
outsourced asset management services to his HNW clients for the
first time.
* Our service standard from 8am to 8pm on weekdays.