We have two financial advisers at the firm – which is directly authorised – working with approximately 200 clients paying ongoing fees. Working with that many clients and this is what Dynamic Planner is all about, you must have a process and CIP in place. Without a partner like Dynamic Planner, we wouldn’t be able to provide that.
Our clients’ attitude to risk is measured in Dynamic Planner and we wouldn’t go anywhere else for ATR, because simplicity is what we’re looking for. We first started using Dynamic Planner more than two years’ ago and we’re fully engaged with it.
For a new client, if a first meeting is successful – when we get a semblance of them and they can get a semblance of us – we ask them to complete Dynamic Planner’s risk and sustainability questionnaires, and a fact find, so we have the full picture.
Then, we begin a dialogue and Dynamic Planner is intrinsic to that. We love the reporting from Dynamic Planner we can send to a client at that stage, spelling out asset allocation and what the level of risk we have agreed with them means.
There are different definitions of ‘green’ money and I think it’s going to take clients decades before their default investing position is ESG. If they’re making money, subject to taking an agreed level of risk, they’re not all going to move into ESG overnight. That’s the challenge for the industry.
At Watt Money, we currently have £10m under management in ESG and all of our clients are invested in funds with an A to AAA ESG rating by MSCI. Having their research available in Dynamic Planner has made our lives more simple. It really helps us make a recommendation. We love it.
MSCI is a very credible organisation and also, it could otherwise cost you, as a business, thousands of pounds each year to access that level of research. There is a lot of detail in a report on a fund and I would much rather include all of that for a client – then they can ask any questions, if they have them – than provide them with too little.
I think, during Covid, people have re-evaluated and re-engaged with what life is all about and how their money can help them. So, bringing in a psychometric sustainability questionnaire is a masterstroke from Dynamic Planner. I love it and we’ve had a number come back from clients. It provides you with a brilliant platform to have those conversations around ESG, which is really positive.
If, as a firm, you haven’t yet started to really think about ESG – because we know the FCA is on this – then I would say you’re potentially in trouble. Yes, I understand the fear of change and change is difficult, and the mountain to climb here is significant, because ESG is a deep subject. But what is available now in Dynamic Planner is a brilliant starting point for firms.
Dynamic Planner will simplify your journey to ESG. For either a new client, starting out in investing or for people already on that journey, the Dynamic Planner risk and sustainability questionnaires are easy. I’ve given it to 20-somethings and they complete them, no quibbles.
