Investment trusts have gained a lot of popularity in the last year – partially thanks to the launch of Anthony Bolton’s Fidelity China Special Situations trust. If you’re looking for some plain-English explanations about investment trusts and how they might be used in client portfolios, join Morningstar analysts for this presentation. Click here for more details and to register.
The first user forum of 2011 will be held on January 12th at Morningstar’s offices in City Road, London. OBSR’s Investment Services Director, Peter Toogood, and Morningstar’s Director of European ETF Research, Bradley Kay, will be debating active vs. passive funds. This will be a great opportunity to be part of a discussion that so often is one-sided. For users of the Adviser Workstation the forum will provide an opportunity to explore the capabilities of the system and receive one-on-one training.
For further information please click here. Or to register, please click here.
Join Morningstar and BrightTalk for a series of discussions about Closed-end funds in today’s investment landscape. Morningstar’s Jackie Beard and Tom Treanor will discuss the expected rise in investment trust popularity as RDR approaches and ways these investment products can add value for your clients. For a complete lineup of the panels, or to register, please click here.
Morningstar and BrightTalk are teaming up for another online investor summit – this time the topic is Emerging Markets. Morningstar’s Robin Johnson, CFA and Senior Investment Consultant, will be discussing the diversification attributes of emerging market debt. Several other leaders in asset management will also weigh in on their areas of expertise – from emerging market property investing to opportunities the future may bring for the sector. For more information or to register for one of the various discussions click here.
We’ve just returned from Glasgow where our latest adviser event took place on October 13th. Dr. Paul Kaplan, Morningstar’s head of quantitative research for Europe, and Jackie Beard, director of investment trust research joined the team for a very informative morning of presentations.
Adding value to your service, streamlining your processes and mitigating your regulatory risk were the primary focuses of the Adviser Workstation presentation, which kicked off the morning. These are areas the system can help and advice firm I’m now offering training in these areas as well. If you would like to register for one of these classes, you can here.
Paul Kaplan then spoke about the history of stock market crashes, putting the most recent crash into perspective. Looking at the historic data, these types of events are actually not that rare and need to factor more into current risk models. To view Paul’s presentation slides click here.
Jackie Beard then offered some insights into the current investment trust market and how investment trusts can be a useful tool when construction client portfolios. In an RDR world, investment trusts are likely to play a prominent role in portfolio construction so Jackie is keen to help investors understand investment trusts and see their potential. To view Jackie’s presentation, click here.
Our next event will be in Manchester on November 10th – for a complete list of upcoming events, click the Events tab above.
P.S. I even managed to pick up a souvenir. The scarf, not the kilt.
I’m back from beautiful South Wales and the 2010 IFP Conference, just in time to make way for a few more American golf enthusiasts. So what was taken from the conference this year? For me it was a focus on ways advisers will be successful in a rapidly changing industry. Interestingly enough, conversations usually started and ended with process.
Charlie Ellis and Mark Tibergien started the 2
nd day with challenges to advisers. Mr. Ellis posed a compelling argument that advisers should be more focused on risk management than playing a loser’s game of trying to beat the market. A nearly impossible feat given the players in the game (institutional investors) and human nature (emotion).
Mr. Tibergien challenged advisers to grow their businesses efficiently by implementing smart, scalable processes. As an advice firm grows, people and process (technology for example) are keys to ensuring a profitable future.
It was incredibly refreshing to hear a business focused discussion about ways to succeed as opposed to the many ways the FSA is supposedly trying to ruin the advice business. Whether you believe that or not (contrary to what some Lib Dems think) we can all agree IFAs have a critical place in the future of personal finance in the UK.
I was also fortunate to hear Tim Hale speak about business practice and advice process, but from a much different angle – defending yourself in a court of law. He also stressed the need for a robust, consistent investment process and the lack of this as one of the most common weaknesses of an IFA firm. Without a sound process, the tactical operations of a firm will struggle as well – fund selection, use of asset classes and portfolio construction.
If you’ve read any of my posts before you probably know why I’m taking note of these presentations. I’ve had the process conversation many times with our clients so it was fantastic to hear different approaches and opinions. I even wrote about earlier this month! Every single presentation I attended at the IFP Conference reiterated the need for a good process with technology as the delivery mechanism so we are very excited to be in position to provide a key piece of this to the IFA community. For help implementing a process send me an email or if you have something to share, please do so in the comments below.
My colleague Paul and I were given the enviable task of representing Morningstar at this year’s IFP Conference, held at Celtic Manor Resort in Wales. It has been a wonderful event for networking and the speakers have truly been thought provoking in sticking with this year’s theme, “Driving the profession forward.”
On the first afternoon I attended a session about technology – first looking at wraps, then at various cash flow tools and finally a discussion on how to choose software for your business.
John Porteous from Macquarie highlighted that wraps should be invisible in a business. Hopefully any technology you’re using can be integrated into your process seamlessly but I think the notion of the invisible wrap is a great goal.
The presentation of cash flow modelling tools was very interesting and I was pleased to see so many in the audience who have taken these tools on to add to their service proposition. Identifying a business need then finding the correct technology solution to deliver it.
Some of these tools are more complex than others but a theme that stood out was the need to take the time to properly learn how to use them. Whether you’re doing live modelling with clients or just preparing presentations for meetings, proficiency will make the whole process so much more effective.
Ben Crockford from Anametric Limited then shared some really good ideas about the process to follow when selecting technology solutions for a business.
- Make a shopping list and keep it so your sure the technology meets your needs
- Research the market before contacting suppliers
- Control the demonstrations and be sure you’re not just being shown the shiny stuff – make sure the technology can deliver the things on your list.
- Be thorough in your due diligence – trial, test on your own – but be prepared to compromise. There are no perfect solutions.
- Budget your time and properly plan for implementation
With any addition of technology there is an implementation phase which can be just as important as the actual technology. If the provider of the technology offers help with implementation, take them up on it.
Overall, the session stressed the need for smart technology solutions to scale business processes and deliver higher quality service – themes that have come up in conversations I have had with our clients over the past 6 months.
More IFP Conference in my next post – the golf course is calling!
Morningstar is proud to share with you BrightTALK’s upcoming series of web seminars discussing ETFs ten years after their launch. The seminars will take place on Tuesday September 14th with on-demand videos available thereafter. If you use ETFs and want to learn more, or if you’re considering using them in portfolios, this will be a great chance to get expert insight and analysis. Click here to visit the ETF Summit homepage or see below for registration and details on each seminar.
Presentations Include:
“How to use ETFs as Building Blocks for a Core Portfolio”
Live: Tuesday 14th September, 2pm BST, or afterwards on-demand
Register here: http://www.brighttalk.com/r/8Rf
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** Ben Johnson, ETF Strategist at Morningstar will provide a broad overview of both the tactical and strategic potential for ETFs in investors’ portfolios. Ben will examine the advantages and disadvantages of using ETFs as building blocks for a core portfolio, discuss how they can be used to supplement existing core positions, and provide real examples of core portfolios constructed solely of ETFs.
“Panel Session: The Truth about ETF Investor Safeguards”
Live: Tuesday 14th September, 4pm BST, or afterwards on-demand
Register here: http://www.brighttalk.com/r/nRf
At this interactive panel session you will be able to pose your live questions to expert panelists; Chris Sexton, Head of Investments, Saunderson House; Manooj Mistry, Head of db x-trackers UK, Deutsche Bank and Mark Weeks, Chief Executive at ETF Securities. This webcast will be moderated by Bradley Kay, ETF Analyst, Morningstar.
“An Adviser Perspective: Incorporating ETFs in Practice”
Live: Tuesday 14th September, 3pm BST, or afterwards on-demand
Register here: http://www.brighttalk.com/r/sRf
Join Philip Bailey, Head of Investments at Assetsfirst and Provisio Portfolio Solutions. In this webcast you will learn how a seasoned IFA has successfully incorporated ETFs into new business practices and how these can be leveraged to benefit both your business and clients.
“Choice & Diversity: The London Stock Exchange Guide to ETFs”
Live: Tuesday 14th September, 12pm BST, or afterwards on-demand
Register here: http://www.brighttalk.com/r/MRf
Gillian Walmsley, Head of Fixed Income Products, London Stock Exchange will provide a guide for IFAs to utilise ETFs on the LSE. She will highlight the continuing development of these simple and flexible investment tools and identify the key drivers for the market’s continuing growth and expansion. Gillian will also answer your questions on key trends in new product development and discuss what the future holds for this market.
Register for any or all of the webcasts here: http://www.brighttalk.com/r/qRf
If you are able to join live you will be able to submit real-time questions to presenters and take part in presenter-led polls. All the webcasts will be available afterwards to view on-demand, at your convenience.
The Morningstar Adviser Team ventured to Wales on June 22nd to present Morningstar’s software and research capabilities to IFAs in the Cardiff area. We have several clients in and around Cardiff so it was nice to see some familiar faces as well as meet others for the first time. The day gave us a great opportunity to discuss some very timely matters facing advisers, most notably looking at the whole market when considering investment products for clients.
Jackie Beard and Tom Treanor, both of the Morningstar investment trust research team, joined us for a discussion which aimed to explain some of the key components of investment trusts and how they can be used in a client portfolio when the full market needs to be considered.
We found the reception from IFAs to be a little guarded – mainly based on past scandals involving investment trust dealing – but we also found our audience could benefit from an independent analysis of these types of investments.
We realise the industry is crying out for better information, better analysis and more insight so we’re very excited to be expanding our qualitative research capabilities to cover investment trusts and ETFs.
If you have a need for this kind of analysis or if you have any feedback for us, please let us know. The slides from the Jackie and Tom’s presentation are available by clicking here.
The Adviser Workstation portion of the day consisted of one-on-one training sessions and an overview of the system’s capabilities with a focus on importing client portfolios and investment planning.
It was great to see some of our oldest clients learning new features of the system and taking useful bits of information back to their offices.
We also saw an increased need for client reporting tools and a process to produce consistent output on a regular basis. I will be focussing on these types of things in future training classes so please feel free to provide any feedback or requests in the comments section below.
Our development team is hard at work this summer preparing for the next software release in early September.
We have some great new features planned that are sure to make your day-to-day operations run even smoother. Stay tuned for more about these additional features.
While David Cameron and Nick Clegg ironed out the details of their coalition government, Morningstar held its annual investment conference across the Thames from the Houses of Parliament at the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel. This year marked the 4th annual conference and we again welcomed several thought provoking presenters and healthy debate from delegates. Morningstar’s own Holly Cook (from morningstar.co.uk fame) took the liberty of blogging throughout each of the presentations. If you were able to attend, I hope the event was informative and stimulating. If you weren’t able to attend and you would like to see what all the buzz is about, please see Holly’s posts for day 1 and day 2 of the conference below:
Next year’s conference is likely to be the same time of year so please contact Morningstar if you would like to attend. Further details of next year’s conference should be available later in 2010.