Delaunay Wealth Management prioritise providing a high-end service to clients. As the firm’s single financial adviser, Lloyd French is always looking for new ways to maximise the time he can spend advising and coaching his clients.
Since 2020, Delaunay have been working with FE Investments (FEI) to help achieve this. FE Investments’ Hybrid and Responsibly Managed portfolios free up the firm from the admin of running their own portfolios and allow Lloyd to focus on adding further value with clients. Also, FEI’s expertise and tech led solutions mean Lloyd’s clients’ investments are handled by an expert team in a way that fits seamlessly with Delaunay’s investment process.
Who are Delaunay?
Delaunay Wealth Management is a boutique IFA firm based in London that specialises in dealing with business owners, executives, active retirees, solicitors and accountants. The business is structured to help Lloyd French, the sole financial adviser, spend at least 80% of his time speaking with clients and adding value.
This is achieved through the support of a sophisticated team, efficient process and adoption of technology throughout the business. Lloyd was voted as one of VouchedFor’s top rated advisers in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
At a glance:
- Delaunay look after 75 households
- Their target segment is clients with >£1m in investable assets
Outsourced investment process
In order to focus on his strengths of financial planning and coaching, Lloyd has always tended to outsource the business’ investment process to a partner. Rather than fund picking himself, he has leant into the benefits and economy of scale offered by a Model Portfolio Service (MPS) since these solutions came onto the market.
In 2020, Delaunay established that they needed to reevaluate their MPS provider and conducted a deep review of the MPS available to the market. As existing users of FE Analytics, this included using FE Analytics’ MPS Directory. The MPS Directory allows advisers to conduct extensive research and due diligence across a range of model portfolios, all in one place.
Partnering with FE Investments
Delaunay were drawn to FE Investments because of the inter-connectivity with products they already used as part of their advice process. This included FE Analytics and as well as the EV risk profile tool which integrate smoothly with FEI.
FEI clients can access a full suite of sophisticated reporting including portfolio reports and rebalancing documentation as well as enhanced ESG disclosure reports. EV is one of several attitude to risk questionnaires that map to FE Investments’ risk managed portfolios and as Delaunay were already using it, the integration makes it easier for them to match clients to the appropriate investment option.
In addition, the expertise of the team at FE Investments and the sophistication of their data led, risk-managed investment process stood out in the market.
“Ultimately, we are not experts in building investment products, that’s not what we do. We are financial planners not investment managers. What I liked about FEI is that they were a tech firm first that became an investment management firm and using technology to do a lot of the investment research legwork just makes sense.”
Lloyd French – Financial Planner, Delaunay
Working with FE Investments
Particularly, FEI has been able to support Delaunay over and above model portfolios with its full-service offering. This helps Delaunay by adding value to the investment advice process. One way FEI does this is with ready-made fact sheets with Delaunay’s branding that they share with their clients, saving time and improving the experience for their clients.
In addition, Delaunay find FEI’s ESG disclosure reports particularly useful. Available for all portfolios, the reports break down the environmental, social and governance impacts of the models down to a holding level against defined areas of concern. They add value in discussions with clients that have particular ESG preferences and concerns since, with the reports, Lloyd can confidently and clearly discuss the implications of each holding.
FEI try to add value wherever possible. Working in partnership with FE Investments, Lloyd has even been able to make use of FEI meeting rooms in central London to hold face to face meetings with clients and have members of the FEI investment team on hand to talk to his clients.
About FE Investments
FE Investments is a full service, scalable, outsourced investment proposition that has financial advisers at its core. We work hand-in-hand with you to fully understand your challenges, to support your unique business model and meet your clients’ needs.
Working with us, you can reduce your compliance risk and administrative burden. Our innovative and robust investment process and market-leading communication package educates and engages your clients; setting your business apart and helping you to retain existing clients and win new ones.
Since launching our first portfolios in 2012, we are now a well-established DFM, supporting over 400 financial advice firms with our service and holding
*As at May 2023
Important information:
This is a marketing communication, intended for financial advisers only. Not for use by retail investors. It is not intended as a recommendation to buy or sell any particular asset class, security or strategy. The value of investments and the income from them may go down as well as up and you may not get back the amount originally invested