Led by Peter Toogood and Gill Hutchison, The Adviser Centre will launch at the end of next month, offering advisers a free, web-based research and consultancy service.
In addition to the individual fund and fund manager research, it will now employ third party independent consultancy Scopic, which was set up by former Fidelity multi-manager communications strategist Paul Ilott in June 2010.
Information advantage
Toogood and Hutchison were, respectively, OBSR’s investment services director and head of investment consultancy. The pair left last summer and joined City Financial in October.
Ilott said: "As a dedicated multi-manager research consultancy, our due diligence-style qualitative reports and ratings are designed to give financial advisers a genuine information advantage when selecting multi-manager solutions for their clients. Working with City Financial to offer this service through The Adviser Centre strengthens that information advantage."
Toogood, investment director at City Financial and architect of The Adviser Centre, added: "Advisers have told us of the need to be able to access quality fund research to help in the provision of investment solutions. This fund research also needs to cover multi-manager offerings. They recognise that delivering multi-manager research requires a dedicated, independent and focused resource. Scopic Research has built an enviable reputation in this area and delivers what advisers have asked for."
