Strategic Report
Governance Report
Financial Statements
Other Information
product. This will reduce the cost for clients whilst proving attractive investment options and complying with Consumer Duty.
Our technological improvements are aligned with good practice from a Consumer Duty perspective whilst also ensuring efficient and appropriate record-keeping.
Technological change will continue to raise clients’ expectations of how we interact with them and our technology and services partnership with SS&C is designed to ensure that Brooks Macdonald is easy to do business with, and that we provide market-leading adviser experience and client service levels. Consolidation The investment management competitive landscape is complex with numerous types of player and varying business models addressing different, but overlapping, segments of the market. Types of player include integrated wealth managers, IFAs who may conduct some, or all, of their own investment management, platform providers who serve advisers, players focused on providing model portfolios and fund solutions, as well as the wealth arms of the major high street banks and high-end private banks. A major trend over recent years has been the increasing prevalence of vertical integration, with firms offering both financial planning and investment management. This is coming from both directions, with investment managers buying IFAs to get closer to the client and advice firms, particularly IFA consolidators, moving away from ‘whole of market’ advice
and taking on investment management as a further revenue stream.
The industry remains highly fragmented and we have seen considerable consolidation in recent years among both IFAs and investment managers. We expect to see consolidation continue, and even potentially accelerate, and selective, high-quality acquisitions remain part of our strategy. Pricing New entrants who are attracted by the scale of the MPS market opportunity continue to drive down pricing. We expect this trend to continue which highlights the need for scale and the balance that our business model provides from our specialist BPS products. Our scale, breadth of distribution, investment performance track record and the valued service that we provide our clients remain key differentiators for Brooks Macdonald.
Digital technology
What the market trends mean for Brooks Macdonald
Digital technology is increasingly a ‘must have’ enabler of financial services, with clients expecting digital to complement face-to-face relationships. The wealth management sector has been slow to adapt but the increased popularity of platform solutions means it must do so quickly.
The UK wealth market continues to grow significantly with an attractive outlook regardless of the underlying macroeconomic conditions. The fundamental opportunity for Brooks Macdonald remains strong and improving, with scope to increase market share in all products. Our distribution model means we are well placed to grow across both adviser solutions and direct wealth. Our core investment management and financial planning offering is well positioned to capture the market opportunity given financial freedoms and the increased need for financial advice. We are adapting our offering both to meet short-term challenges in the marketplace and to cater to advisers’ and clients’ changing needs, with a strong set of specialised BPS products, including our Gilts and Decumulation products, further development of funds and unitised solutions tailored to the adviser, and consistent business-to-business BM Investment Solutions delivery.
Our response
We continue to work to improve our client and adviser portal and other client-facing digital tools, focused on making Brooks Macdonald easy to do business with. In parallel, during the financial year we implemented the first phase of Salesforce client relationship management, focused on advisers, and the second phase, which addresses private clients, is under way. By replacing multiple legacy CRM systems with a single enterprise-level CRM, we are ensuring that our interactions with clients and advisers are timely and meet their needs. We also implemented Intelliflo advice software across our UK financial planning business to drive consistent service levels for our advice clients.
Brooks Macdonald Group plc Annual Report and Accounts 2024
15
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online