A different world
AUGUST 27TH, 2010 By ANDREW
Being tasked to write my first blog since joining Xentum has given me the opportunity to compare working for large financial institutions and a bespoke, family office wealth management company.
I have been involved in financial services for 21 years now and 20 of them working for well respected high street names here in the UK and Switzerland. So what is different here at Xentum?
Advice
My roles over the years have always involved advising clients, be it on wills, trusts, estates or financial planning. In light of the advice being provided I spent many hours/days/weeks on technical training courses and seminars, one theme always appeared on such training courses; sales techniques. I have been shown how to read body language, facial observation (interesting when you can tell from a person’s eye movements if they are being honest), how people understand things (be it in pictures or words) and how to follow a process to close a sale.
The above is all well and good but I always thought if the advice you give is technically correct and appropriate then why do you need to be taught how to sell? That is key here at Xentum, we do not have any products to sell in order to meet sales targets for line managers, area directors or shareholders. We do what our clients and professional connections ask of us, that is provide the appropriate advice and source the solutions if required.
Independence
I have never been a tied adviser, the investments and other areas of financial planning I have been able to offer have always been what is called “open architecture” or “whole of market”. A majority of the investment strategies I have been involved in for clients have included discretionary portfolio management, i.e. clients trust the institution to manage their long term money within an agreed timescale, risk tolerance and objective. Recently, I have been reviewing such portfolios and what has become apparent is how much independence really takes place in such portfolios. A majority of the portfolios I have looked at have highlighted that over 75% of the value are invested into “in house” funds or investments. Now unless these funds can demonstrate they are “best of breed” over a reasonable timescale, then the discretionary managers should be proactive in reviewing and replacing if appropriate. I wonder how often this happens?
Xentum has no such offering, we deal with a number of high quality discretionary managers who have no in house funds – they research the whole of market and buy/hold/sell such investments if their research suggests action. Xentum’s role is to monitor the discretionary managers and compare their performance and service for our clients, if we feel the client is not getting what they are paying for then we will move the portfolio to another provider, no biased advice here.
Professional Referrals
My final comment on working at Xentum is my surprise at the quality of introductions from high end professional companies who actually refer their clients to us for holistic financial advice. I have observed in my short time here referrals from PwC, Pannone , Addleshaw Goddard and Grant Thornton. Such referrals at my previous companies were as frequent as a good performance from England at a major football tournament.
Posted in: General Information