According to a new survey, client education is the biggest challenge when managing risk.
This was the conclusion of advisers who attended the recent Wellian Symposium 2015.
Organised by Wellian Investment Solutions, the Symposium survey revealed that almost 80% of advisers in attendance said their biggest challenge when managing risk in their client portfolios was creating suitable risk profiling questionnaires, and providing appropriate information and education. What’s more, around half of the advisers claimed to be concerned about the lack of safe haven options for clients in today’s market.
Also at the top of the concerns list was an over-exposure to equities and to China. The advisers admitted that these concerns mean they increasingly make use of DFMs.
Other major concerns included over exposure to equities as well as over exposure to China. Consequently, the majority of advisers surveyed at the event have also said they expect their use of DFMs to increase in the foreseeable future.
CEO of Wellian Investment Solutions Alan Durrant said: “This year’s Symposium shed light on some of the biggest challenges and concerns advisers face when it comes to managing client risk. In order to find a solution to these challenges, the biggest question an adviser needs to ask themselves is: ‘If my client’s aspirations and attitude to risk have not changed, then why has their portfolio?’
“In our profession, we like to ‘pigeon-hole’ risk but the fact is that risk cannot be measured in one dimension. It is not possible to measure any given risk in isolation and as a multi manager, we take on the risk of those individual assets in our portfolios when blended together. Similarly, we define the level of risk in our portfolios by considering a wide multiple of factors and outcomes but our underlying principle and defining strategy always stays the same. We always make sure to prepare for the worst, rather than hope for the best.”
