Investec Asset Management became a user of FE Analytics in April 2017 and whilst the relationship remains young, sales manager, Alex Jones and sales director, John Lester explain how Investec Asset Management is already seeing the benefits that the tool provides.
Background
Investec Asset Management is a global business that as at the end of September 2017 manages $132 billion for clients all over the world. Amongst their clients they name pension funds, central banks, sovereign wealth funds, insurers, foundations, financial advisers and individual investors.
The Challenge
The key driver behind Investec Asset Management subscribing to FE Analytics was the need for a quick and easy to use tool that enables them to perform comparisons against key competitors and helps them understand how financial advisers view their funds.
This in turn would help them better position themselves in terms of responding to the trends in the industry. Says Alex:
“If we are able to utilise the same systems as our clients then we are completely aligned in our messaging and we can point them in the direction of what they need to be looking at by utilising the system on their side more effectively.
“The charts and reports produced on FE Analytics can be used in our marketing collateral as well, ensuring we are speaking the same language.”
Additionally, the asset manager was looking for a tool which could demonstrate how their funds could be blended with other popular funds in the market and what the outcome would be for the client.
FE Analytics has enables them to set up mock portfolios with different time horizons with key competitor funds that compliments what they do. This allows for a better conversation with an adviser as to how they could better build their model portfolios or strategies.
Benefits
Get a full view on all funds across all sectors and be more informed about competitor funds
By using FE Analytics, Investec Asset Management now gets a full view of all funds across all sectors allowing for comparison of a fund very quickly and easily against all investment products in the market. Explains Alex:
“This is down to the way the FE Analytics tool has been built- I can have a detailed fund comparison on my screen within seconds.
“Moreover, if we are out talking to clients we can demonstrate via FE Analytics what could happen if one of our funds were to be blended with another and present that to a client.”
Research
Alex states that FE Analytics is particularly useful when researching individual funds.
“We use FE Analytics when we have an upcoming roadshow or meeting for which we want to do additional research, especially if we want to assess how one of our focus funds fares against its key competitors.”
It is also used to field questions from clients. When clients have any specific enquiries, FE Analytics allows the team to give more informed and in-depth responses.
Drawdown function
The drawdown function within the tool proves very useful particularly with income and multi-asset funds and allows the manager to present different scenarios to clients. Says Alex:
“We can say to people in retirement for example, if you drew down X amount this is what your portfolio would do over a particular time period. This analysis can be carried out very quickly on FE Analytics, which otherwise would be quite time consuming if done manual
The FE fundinfo Experience
The FE fundinfo experience to date has been an overwhelmingly positive one and both commented on the ease of use of the tool. John Lester states:
“In FE Analytics, what you have is a valuable tool, which is very easy to use. This and credibility of data when comparing funds is essential from an adviser’s perspective. This is also true when our sales team position our solutions in conversations with advisers.”
While Alex adds: “We have a very good relationship with FE fundinfo and have absolutely no issues at all in terms of training or support.
“Training wise everything has been very good. FE Analytics is user-friendly and intuitive so we have been able to throw ourselves in and pretty much teach ourselves.”