Case Study: Increasing Market Opportunities and Enhancing Investor Engagement

Read our latest case study to discover how Waverton Investment Management partnered with EV's risk-rating service to integrate risk ratings across the breadth of their award-winning investment services.

The Client

Waverton Investment Management (Waverton) is an owner-managed investment management firm with offices in London and Scotland. They design and manage award-winning investment solutions for financial advisers, private investors, charities, and institutional investors. Their commitment to client service drives everything they do. A key strength of Waverton is the breadth of investment services they provide, from MPS portfolios on a wide range of platforms to specialist bespoke portfolios for overseas investors.

The Problem

When financial advisers solely use EV Risk Ratings as part of their fund selection process, they are limited in the number of fund providers they can access. As Waverton's funds were not risk-rated and visible within EVPro, it meant advisers would rule them out for selection. This huge opportunity cost meant they missed out on potential new client relationships, more assets under management (AUM), and increased revenue.

A wider problem was classifying certain assets, especially alternative investments, that can pose a significant challenge for Discretionary Fund Managers (DFMs). Alternative investments often have unique characteristics and may only sometimes fit easily alongside more traditional asset classes that DFMs use to build portfolios. This can make realistically assessing such assets' risk and return characteristics difficult. If not analysed with a suitable risk methodology, there is a risk that funds will be placed in the wrong risk band. This could result in advisers recommending unsuitable funds to their clients, leading to poor outcomes. 

The Solution

Waverton partnered with EV's fund risk-rating service and had seven multi-asset ranges risk-rated to meet adviser-client demands for EV Risk-Rated funds. In doing so, Waverton was able to access over 25% of the UK adviser market using our risk profiling tools. 

The solution helps advisers seamlessly match Waverton’s multi-asset funds with their clients’ risk preferences when using our risk profiler tools, meaning the adviser has the knowledge and reassurance that they are recommending the most suitable funds to their clients, in doing so, providing the best possible outcomes and supporting the delivery of suitable and compliant advice.

Throughout the process, Waverton and EV constantly discussed classifying more complex assets, including alternative investments. These assets can be more difficult to assess. The collaboration between the two parties provided better clarity and understanding of the funds and their underlying asset allocations being evaluated as part of the risk-rating process, creating a transparent process and better understanding. 

Overall, the solution helped Waverton establish a more efficient process that ensured transparency within their client communications, saved time and delivered the best outcomes to Waverton, its adviser clients, and end investors.

The Results

Waverton can now target a broader range of advisers with robust risk-rated fund propositions that support the delivery of suitable and compliant advice. Doing so has boosted their potential client base, assets under management, and revenue stream.

In addition, they now have a more efficient process to ensure their risk ratings remain current, forming part of their due diligence information pack, which helps with their client communications and meeting compliance and regulatory obligations.

Adding the EV Risk-Rating logo to their marketing collateral has made it easier for adviser clients to find the most suitable fund based on risk level and investment objective, contributing to even better engagement. 

Finally, working with EV helped establish Waverton within the financial adviser ecosystem. It worked with partners, providers and agencies to ensure they are as transparent and easy to do business with as possible. Waverton’s commitment to client service drives everything they do, which fits nicely with our philosophy at EV.

So what next?

At EV, we provide the UK's fastest-growing risk rating service in the market, boosted by the UK's most used risk profiler by advisers with their clients.

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