The model portfolio service at Chase De Vere, which launched in June, has a target to reach £1bn of assets within three years.
Ben Willis, who joined Chase De Vere from Whitechurch Securities to launch the product range, said the company “has built into the numbers” reaching £1bn of assets in that time period.
The product is available only to the 230 financial advisers employed by Chase De Vere, although Mr Willis said this could change in the future.
He said his aim is to use much of the investment process he developed at Whitechurch when developing that company's model portfolio service to drive growth for the new offering, he added he feels that superior quality of service offered to advisers by Chase De Vere is what will help differentiate the company’s offering from that of rivals.
Mr Willis said the new offering from Chase De Vere will comprise four investment strategies, comprising allocations to combinations of growth and income and also an ethical investment strategy.
All of the portfolios are then further divided by risk weighting, with cautious balanced and adventurous portfolios offered.
He said he will invest in some alternative assets and also has a focus on the assets of financial companies as he feels interest rates will begin to rise globally boosting the returns those companies can earn.
Paul Stocks, investment director at the firm of Dobson & Hodge in Doncaster, said: "We don’t believe in model portfolio services as a core to our business given that there is such a range of potential clients and, as a result, objectives.
"For example, assuming a risk score of one to 10 (i.e. 10 variables), we then have investors for income, growth and perhaps capital security.
"Add to that drawdown versus accumulation, young versus old, long versus shorter time horizon, etc, and we feel there are way too many variables to justify using a model portfolio service.
"We still build portfolios based on the client's needs and objectives as we feel this is in the client's best interest even if it means there is more time spent on it by us.”
david.thorpe@ft.com
