Against a backdrop of increasing regulatory and competitive challenges, City has unveiled its Adviser Centre, which is being developed by new hires Peter Toogood and Gill Hutchison, to provide a web-based service offering independent fund research, as well as market and industry commentary.
Toogood and Hutchison joined City’s multi-asset team, which is led by Mark Harris, at the beginning of October. Collectively the pair have more than 30 years’ experience in fund research and consultancy and have designed the service to provide material and information on third party funds, with the aim of helping wealth advisers rise to the challenge of covering the whole of the market.
“We recognise that advisers face an array of challenges which necessitate a range of solutions,” said Toogoood, an investment director at the firm, adding that as multi-asset investors themselves their interests were aligned with those of their clients.
Hutchison, head of investment research, continued: “We are confident generating information that is accurate and up-to-date in a simple and focused format will appeal to advisers. Not only do independent advisers need to identify attractive investments, but they also need to demonstrate why they are appropriate investments. We seek to help them in this task by explaining a fund’s characteristics and what role it might play in a portfolio.”
The Adviser Centre is the latest stage in City Financial’s broadening of its multi-asset offering to provide enhanced support for advisers in an increasingly challenging investment and regulatory environment.
The team hopes to use its extensive research and consultancy experience to provide information and opinion on funds that are on ‘Positive Watch’, a platform for commentary on younger investment talent and product innovations. The Positive Watch list will be dynamic in nature and include managers who the firm believes have capability and potential to be successful, as well as more experienced managers who may have recently changed firm, mandate or product.
Additionally, City Financial will recommend around 100 established, actively managed funds, which will be built around the critical elements of investment quality, utility and cost.
