Suitability: Advisors Preparing for Changing Times

Research demonstrates ‘High Net Worth’ individuals want more comprehensive and personalised support from professional advisors to address their values-based economic and societal goals. This growing demand for different social impact investment advice and support provides plenty of opportunities for professional advisory firms.

This trend towards impact/ ESG investment (driven by millennials, GEN Z, women of wealth, and other wealthy people) is placing suitability issues at the heart of advisor/client conversations. This means moving beyond current discussions with clients about their investment objectives, their financial circumstances and ability to bear risk.

To fulfil existing suitability regulations an advisor must currently discuss with a client their investment objectives, learn about their financial circumstances, assess their knowledge and experience in investing, determine their ability to bear risk and their risk tolerance — leading to the creation of a portfolio strategy.

To effectively comply with these new FCA Consumer Duty and prepare for the potential suitability needs of clients, wealth advisors need to understand and be able to discuss with their clients their values, motivation, ambitions, and goals.  Additionally, MiFlD Il has been implemented by the EU and although there is not yet an equivalence for MiFlD Il in the UK regulations, responding to growing client demand for impact or ESG as part of a client's investment strategy and any potential change in UK regulatory requirements is becoming increasingly demanded by the client.

To prepare for the potential suitability needs of clients and potential requirements related to sustainability, there will be a need for wealth management advisors to:

• Communicate in a clear manner with a client
• Understand their client' s values, motivation, ambitions, and goals
• Assess the current levels of sustainable impact/sustainable investing knowledge of a client and their sustainability preferences, capturing their ESG preferences—to be included in the advisory strategy and processes (onboarding, matching the client to an investment portfolio, and reporting)

Ultimately this leads to determining a client's intention, to supporting action and to achieving their desired returns and impact.

Are you equipped to talk to your clients about their values, motivations, ambitions, and goals - capturing their impact/ ESG preferences? This course will allow you to further develop your skills and competencies, putting you in a better position to fulfil your clients' needs, while preparing for potential regulatory change by FCA.

Key Learning Objectives:

Advisors who talk about sustainable investment are perceived more favourably. To do so, the initial conversation must start with learning and understanding a client’s needs, values, motivation, ambitions, and goals.

• Based on market needs and trends, prepare advisors for meaningful suitability conversations on matters related to their impact investment journey
• Discover the benefits of incorporating suitability discussions into the advisor’s practice beyond the current approach
• Understand the value sustainable investing and suitability discussions bring to the advisor’s business practices, including improving client engagement and satisfaction, and creating new business opportunities
• Develop impactful approaches to addressing a client’s needs, values, motivations, ambitions, and goals, helping clients realise their values in choosing the most impactful approach to their investments
• Prepare to meet potential changing FCA requirements to consider client values-based sustainability preferences

09:30 Section 1: Introduction and Scene Setting

• Introductions, confidentiality, purpose of training and learning outcomes
• Identification of participants’ goals and expectations
• Questions around suitability and setting delegate expectations
• Discussion of questions to participants about suitability from clients, colleagues and stakeholders and what they see as the challenges
• Overview of the emergence of social impact/ESG investment in the UK and internationally

09:50 Section 2: Understanding Terminology

• Definitions, jargon/’buzzwords’, typology strategies; why should an advisor have clarity about terminology including a discussion of the confusing and multiple use of terms with slightly different meanings
• UN SDGs and their implications for impact/ESG investing
• A review of issues such as greenwashing and measuring impact
• Market trends and evidence of change including the importance of value drive investing ends
• Drivers of sustainable investing
• Role of millennials and women of wealth
• Review of data/trends
• Profiling client attitudes - Oxford Risk Research

10:40 Break (timing is approximate)

11:00 Section 3: Engaging with Clients – Suitability

• The context:
• Creating a Sustainable Investment Suitability Strategy; the key to being a good advisor
• When developing a client’s investment strategy it is important when identifying and meeting their needs to also discuss their values, motivations, ambitions, and vision
• Contextualise this within the investment return spectrum
• How to have conversations with clients – a demo tool
• The changing regulatory environment and implications for services provided to private clients
• Benefits of applying suitability
• Understanding the advisor’s and clients values and purpose
• Value driven conversation helping to understand client needs
• Internal/organisational issues to be addressed and managed
• Where to start to establish suitability – approaches
• How to have conversations with clients – a demo tool measuring a client’s attitudes and SDG preference
• Exercises

12:15 Section 4 Conclusions and Planning Next Steps

• Participant questions
• Conclusion, summary overview of the session and evaluation of learnings and suggestions for improvement, and next steps

12.30 End

Who should attend?

This course is suitable for all professional levels, looking to improve their knowledge of how to address clients’ values, motivations, ambitions, and goals related to sustainable investing.

Professional advisors from firms who manage wealthy individuals’ (high-net worth individuals with investable wealth of at least £1 million liquid assets, and UHNWs £10M+) and wealthy families’ resources across a range of disciplines such as:

• Professional wealth and investment management advisors, and private banking
• Tax, legal, financial advisors, family trusts, and family offices

John Pepin, CEO, Philanthropy Impact

John Pepin is Chief Executive, Philanthropy Impact. Its purpose is the increase philanthropic giving, social investment and impact/ESG investing across Europe by working with professional advisors to ultra-high net worth and high net worth individuals to grow and enhance the quality of the support they give to their clients, the UK’s wealthiest individuals, around philanthropy and social/impact/ESG investment. Philanthropy Impact is a membership organisation for private client advisors, wealth management, private banking, independent financial advice, tax and legal sectors; as well as individual philanthropists and social investors, trusts and foundations, charities and social enterprises. The organisation acts as a knowledge hub and centre of excellence offering events, specialist knowledge sharing, CPD certified training for professional advisors, voluntary standards and sector and government liaison.

Prior to this he has 20 years’ experience as a social entrepreneurial consultant working internationally with over 300 charities, social enterprises, infrastructure support organisations and professional associations. He spent over 15 years as a chief executive of a variety of Canadian charities/ social enterprises/ associations.

George King IV, Senior Wealth Manager, MASECO Private Wealth

George is a Senior Wealth Manager at MASECO Private Wealth, the first UK wealth management firm to achieve B-Corp status. George is a senior investment professional with 30 years of financial markets experience who advises high net worth families on their cross border financial needs. For the first decade of his career, George was doing primary investment research as a Financial Analyst (CFA), spending most of that time as an Institutional Investor-ranked analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston in New York. Though responsible for a range of consumer industries, his notable coverage was the dynamic TMT (telecom, media and technology) sector. The second half of his career has been focused on working with high-net-worth investor clients, principally with Alliance Bernstein (AB) and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

Working in New York, Miami and London, George has experience advising a very broad range of investors around the world on investment strategy and portfolio construction, across all major asset classes and multiple currency regimes. George has played a key role in helping to build wealth management businesses for both AB and RBC, across Florida and in London. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, writes for and is quoted in a range of publications, and makes regular appearances on TV and radio programs. Passionate about the critical importance of the intersection of wealth planning and investment management, he has earned a Certificate in Financial Services – Trusts and Estate Planning from the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners (STEP). As an American expat in the UK, George has lived through the issues on which he now advises US clients residing in the UK and elsewhere outside the US.

Guest Speaker: Where possible, based on guest speaker availability a guest speaker with a background in impact/ESG investment and in suitability discussions will participate in the session.

IA Member £395.00 +VAT
Non-Member £545.00 +VAT

Pay using a credit card online, or if you wish to be invoiced please email your full details to: Training@theia.org

PLEASE NOTE: Full payment for the course must be made prior to the course commencement date.

• Any cancellation must be made in writing.
• For all cancellation received 15-30 days prior to the course start date, 50% of the course fee is still payable.
• No refund is given for a cancellation made 14 days or less prior to the commencement of a course.
• Transferring from one course to another is treated as a cancellation.
• You can substitute one delegate for another at no additional cost. In this instance, please give two business days’ notice.

Hybrid Training Courses:

We will continue to monitor and follow government guidance regarding coronavirus (Covid-19) to ensure the safety of our team and our members. Please be advised some training courses could change from hybrid delivery (being held in-person and virtually) to solely virtual delivery, should government guidance require.

There are a limited number of in-person spaces available on this course and this will be allocated on a first come first served basis.