Data provider FE FundInfo and consultancy company Square Mile have come together to create a fund dashboard in order to help advisers compare and select appropriate funds for their clients.
The new dashboard is a symbiosis of Square Mile’s qualitative fund analysis with FE FundInfo’s quantitative, data-driven research. Five elements are featured for each fund on the dashboard: opinion, risk, cost, performance, and ethical weighting. The risk assessment includes the Synthetic Risk and Reward Indicator (SRRI) for each fund, plus its ESG credentials and the amount that it charges. The opinion function capitalises upon Square Mile’s qualitative research and provides an in depth overview of the fund, while the performance function draws upon FE FundInfo’s quantitative specialism by analysing funds’ performance through their annual return.
Square Mile’s managing director, Richard Romer-Lee, said: “The aim of the fund dashboard is to introduce greater clarity on a number of areas to support advisers in their fund selection.
“It is designed to be simple and intuitive, delivering a large amount of essential fund information through an easy-to-interpret digital platform.”
FE FundInfo’s head of propositions, Stephen Mitchell, said transparency in the investment world was becoming “increasingly important”.
Stephen Mitchell, FE FundInfo’s head of propositions, said: “Ratings alone should not be used in isolation, but by providing them with clear and comprehensive information that looks beyond returns as part of broad fund research and analysis, the fund dashboard will play an invaluable role in giving a more rounded overview of a fund’s performance, both in the short and long-term.”
Martin Bamford, head of client education at Informed Choice, explained the need for advisers to consider a “huge amount of data” in order to select an appropriate fund for their clients: “Long gone are the days when funds could be selected based on performance alone. Square Mile and FE are bringing together some seriously useful data sets here, displayed in a user friendly and appealing way. The ESG credentials will be especially valuable as interest in sustainable investing continues to grow.”