Defaqto has launched new independent Consumer Duty Profiles for the top 20 most frequently recommended discretionary MPS portfolios.
Designed to help advisers meet their regulatory needs as part of Consumer Duty, the Profiles are now available in Defaqto Engage and Centra, software used by over 30% of UK financial advisers.
Announced earlier this year, Consumer Duty Profiles form part of Defaqto’s ongoing commitment to assisting advisers to make smarter financial decisions in an ever-increasing regulatory environment. The initial 20 discretionary MPS portfolio reports cover a number of prominent MPS providers such as Brooks Macdonald, Quilter, RBC Brewin Dolphin, Tatton, Timeline, and Waverton. They provide completely independent and unbiased profiling of these providers’ propositions.
Consumer Duty Profiles enable advisers to compare products, funds, or DFM portfolios in a peer group on the same basis using the same data. Using the documents, advisers will be able to report on the target market of the product in question, and importantly, understand who is not the target market. The profiles will also make understanding whether a product offers fair value, or assessment of the value of a fund/DFM portfolio, much easier by providing a comparison of key benchmarks to the product or fund’s peer group.
Andy Parsons, Insight Manager (Funds & DFM) at Defaqto, said: “These Profiles will provide enhanced due diligence for an Adviser, and complement the documents available from asset managers.
“Defaqto is the market leader in DFM data capture, with over 120 asset managers regularly supplying a broad set of data across approximately 2,600 portfolios. The obvious evolution was to provide comprehensive analysis and comparisons of portfolios that have very similar characteristics and risk profiles based around the Defaqto risk profile scale of 1-10.
“Each of our Consumer Duty Profiles is a 2-page document, structured around the four key outcomes the FCA set out in the rules and guidance: namely ‘products and services’, ‘price and value’, ‘consumer understanding’ and ‘consumer support’. Where the data can be clearly compared to other propositions, we have calculated the average for the relevant risk band within Defaqto Engage to clearly show whether it has out/unperformed, takes more risk, is cheaper or more expensive, and if economies of scale are being passed on to the end investor.”
