​​Overarching principle

​The overarching principle of the  Duty  ensures that a  firm must  act to deliver good outcomes for retail investors. 

​​

Cost-cutting rules

These rules state how firms must act in order to deliver good outcomes for retail investors. 

• Act in good faith  towards retail customers

• Avoid causing foreseeable harm towards retail customers

• Enable and support retail customers to pursue their financial objectives  ​​

​

​​​The four outcomes

The Duty has four key outcomes: 

• Products and services

• Fair price and value

• Consumer understanding

• Customer support

 

1. Products and services 

 The first outcome under the Duty ensures that when we design and deliver our service we meet the needs and characteristics of a clearly-defined target market of clients. This drives us to maintain a strong product governance strategy, ensuring that customers’ interests are central to every decision, from inception and through the entire life cycle of our offerings. 

  

Our strategy to continually improve the outcomes we deliver includes:  

• Being crystal clear in our focus on outcomes: We are dedicated to precisely defining the outcomes we aim to achieve, allowing us to tailor products and services that align effectively with customers’ goals. For our portfolios, this means setting clear estimated returns and ensuring they are not overly eroded by costs and charges. The returns must be aligned with the reasonable expectations of our customers relative to the risks they are taking by investing. By evaluating our performance against these estimated returns we prioritise consumers’ actual outcomes over simply comparing ourselves to our peers. 

• Data-driven objectivity: We understand the importance of evaluating our products and services against clear, objective data points that rigorously assess their performance and risk. 

• Proactive reviews: Our data-centric approach provides an 'early warning' mechanism for portfolios that may deviate from desired outcomes, enabling swift intervention to ensure continued service relevance. 

 

Learn more about our target market here. 

 

2. Fair price and value 

​At the heart of our commitment to the Duty is a promise to deliver products and services that offer genuine value at a fair price. While good investment performance is a key component, it’s not the only measure of value. We understand that active investment decisions can lead to periods of underperformance. What truly matters is how we rigorously examine and challenge ourselves during these periods and how we ensure that portfolio costs and charges never hinder the achievement of long-term customer outcomes. 

  

Our approach to assessing value for money is anchored in several core principles: 

• Portfolios are evaluated for their potential to meet estimated returns, aligned with the level of risk customers take. If they fall short, we take decisive action to address it. 

• Costs and charges must align with returns, ensuring investor outcomes remain robust and uncompromised. 

• Transparency in our charges is important, allowing investors to compare our services with other viable options. 

• We integrate a variety of value drivers into our assessments, such as whether the portfolio meets specific ESG criteria, delivers income targets or meets specific currency needs. 

• Exceptional service is a vital driver of value for money. Our offerings work to enhance customer understanding, empowering financial advisers to recommend the most suitable portfolios to their clients. 

 

You can explore our latest value assessment here.  

 

3. Consumer understanding 

​We work exclusively with professional financial advisers, rather than retail investors, because we believe that expert financial advice unlocks good consumer understanding of investments. When consumers receive clear, understandable information about their investments, they are empowered to avoid pitfalls such as taking on excessive risk or reducing their stock market participation due to anxiety.  

​ 

Our work to improve customer understanding includes:  

• Continually refining and testing the language we use to describe our portfolios, especially in terms of their 'riskiness.' 

• Collaborating with our network of financial advisers to share valuable insights on effective communication and identify any anomalies. 

• Offering an extensive range of market commentaries, educational resources, and portfolio analysis tools to support the advice process. We consistently seek feedback from our clients throughout the year to ensure our materials are effective. 

• Proactively educating our financial adviser clients on critical issues where poor consumer understanding can negatively impact investor outcomes, such as communicating effectively with anxious investors and those with hidden vulnerabilities. 

 

4. Customer support 

​Our aim is to ensure every customer receives the assistance they need swiftly and effectively, eliminating any obstacles that might hinder their decision-making process. 

  

Delivering great customer support is at the heart of our business. We have developed digital tools to empower our financial adviser clients with insightful portfolio comparisons, data-driven illustrations, and timely market insights.  Our approach to customer support remains highly personal and we take pride in the accessibility and dedication of our entire team to address our clients' daily needs.  We actively seek structured feedback from our clients to ensure we are getting this right.