Wealth management clients might well ask what they are paying for, and whether they are getting value for money.
Although traditionally wealth managers have prided themselves on inhouse research, they are starting to concede they may not be quite up to the job. Recent research found more than 39 per cent of UK wealth managers felt their equity research coverage was inadequate, whether sourced entirely inhouse or using a mixture of inhouse and external sources.
Although they admitted to qualms about the independence of research from the sellside, there seemed to be a general reluctance to shell out money for more independent material.
And as well as worrying about how independent the research is, the wealth managers who responded to Scorpio Partnership’s research for S&P were concerned it might get a bit heavy on facts, so likely to cloud the issue. Apparently what they look for is “the ability to tell an investment story as opposed to getting bogged down in the facts”.
Surely most of their clients, whose money they are managing, are quite keen for investment decisions to be based on those boring facts?
