The model portfolio service operated by national advice firm Chase De Vere will not be made available to external advisers until its assets have risen to £1bn and the fund range has a three-year performance track record, according to Ben Willis, head of portfolio management at the firm.
Since its launch in June 2018, the product range has grown in size to £560m, with all of that capital coming from advisers within the Chase De Vere group, although use of the service is optional.
Mr Willis old FTAdviser: “The advisers do not have to use the service, and there have also been a couple of cases where the end client of the adviser has felt the service is not for them, and that is fine as well.
"In terms of making the service available to advisers outside of Chase De Vere, there is a lot of competition in the model portfolio service market right now, so I don’t think it is imminent, we would want to have a performance track record of at least three years before we could go to market.
"That’s what advisers look for, and our competitors will have that. I also think to be taken seriously by external advisers I think we would need to have assets of £1bn.”
The models constructed by Mr Willis and his team focus on passive investments, and only add actively managed funds if needed to achieve a specific exposure.
Mr Willis said: “The final quarter of 2018 showed that so many of the active funds out there don’t justify the fees they are charging, and we are in a world where most advisers have to be very conscious of costs and charges.”
Mr Willis joined Chase De Vere in 2018, having previously spent 11 years at Whitechurch Securities.
david.thorpe@ft.com
