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Segmentation – an opportunity to build a better business

Post RDR the unquestionable baseline for building a sustainable advisory business is working out how to service more customers, and how to do this profitably.

Put simply, it's a numbers game. Big numbers are generally more appealing than small numbers. For every client with £1m of investable assets there are perhaps 50 with £100,000 in investable assets and perhaps thousands with £25,000 to invest. So why miss out on this enormous part of the market?

An opportunity for you and your clients

There are many labels for customers with around £25,000 of disposable net assets – none of those labels are very attractive. But whether you call them small investors or prefer the term mass affluent, there is clearly a challenge (we think opportunity) in being able to find an investment service proposition that is both valued by this enormous pool of clients whilst being efficiently and profitably deployed by yourself.
We appreciate that tailoring the service offering provided to the value of the customer isn`t exactly rocket science – however the regulatory environment that you are now having to operate in demands this approach. It is not optional or a nice to have.

In depth

  • RDR – we’ve got it covered
  • Our investment service that offers strong, transparent and ongoing governance

Ongoing client reviews – are they practical?

The FSA’s thematic review on pension switching and the requirements of ‘Treating Customers Fairly’ place more emphasis on the suitability of advice, providing an ongoing service to even low touch clients. This also means you have to review any dormant clients within your client bank to ensure the advice you gave in the past remains suitable. RDR reiterates the need for regular reviews and it’s imperative for you that your process is practical and cost effective.

These initiatives have highlighted not just the importance of the suitability of the initial advice, but also the need to provide an ongoing service to all clients through regular reviews.

How can you achieve this in a practical and commercially viable way for every client?

Practical support for you and your business

To find out more about the segmentation opportunities and how Governed Portfolios, our award winning investment service with in-built governance, can help you to tailor the solution continuously to each customer segment's needs:

  • Speak to your usual Scottish Life contact
  • Call us on 0845 60 40 800.

Source

For professional advisers only