MyFiduciary signs big new client

A new regulatory environment for advisers is creating an opportunity for research firm MyFiduciary, which has signed a deal with one of the big banks.

Tuesday, August 6th 2019, 6:01AM

The firm has inked a deal with Westpac which involves it helping select investment products for the bank's advice network.

MyFiduciary offers investment policy development, process reviews and assessments and investment support to advice firms, operating on a fee-for-service basis.

The researcher recently partnered with Morningstar to allow financial advice firms in New Zealand to access a version of Morningstar’s Adviser Research Centre (ARC) tool.

MyFiduciary was founded in 2006 by Ross Fowler. Principals include Chris Douglas and former NZIER economist Aaron Drew.

Douglas, formerly of Morningstar, said it was now working with nine financial advice groups and having active conversations with about five others.

It recently signed on Milestone.

“There is definitely a lot of interest in developing a robust investment process for advisers at the moment, which is really cool to see. We feel that we have a pretty compelling package to offer independent financial advisers, which appears to also be a key factor in the recent wins.”

He said the new legislation, which takes effect next year, was driving advisers to look for better research options.

“They need to be able to demonstrate they have independent research input into their processes. From our perspective we think there is obviously a really good opportunity in New Zealand.”

He said there was increasing demand and few local businesses could provide a broad-based research approach including asset allocation, investment selection and monitoring.

MyFiduciary had structured the business so it was readily scalable, he said.

Its agreement with Morningstar was designed to make sure it could have a broad reach in the market for advisers.

“We are very focused on growing the business significantly in New Zealand at the moment.”

Tags: Chris Douglas MyFiduciary