In addition, she sits on the investment committee for Cornerstone. “We outsource most of our investment proposition to discretionary fund managers (DFMs), who build the portfolios for us,” she says. “This is the first company I’ve worked for which has taken that approach and it’s been interesting learning how it operates. It is working really well.”
The investment committee “is there to discuss everything really”, Rebecca says. “We will review the performance of our DFMs, we’ve got four of them and they all offer a different style of management for the client. We will look at how they are performing against various benchmarks, their asset allocation, the content and quality of their factsheets and the information they are giving us about strategy and performance.” Not all clients are placed into DFM run portfolios. “So we will review the options for other clients too and we just generally talk about strategy,” Rebecca says.
“We’ve been looking lately at moving away from working towards benchmarks and channeling everything towards goal based planning, so that we are measuring investment against the return that the client needs rather than the return that their risk profile says they should have.
“It’s very dynamic. When had our last meeting 2 weeks ago we had threesixtyservices sit in on the meeting to get their feedback on the whole process. They said what they liked about our discussion was that we weren’t talking about how can we beat this or that benchmark or how can we make ourselves look good, rather it was related how can we best serve the client, how can we make them understand things.”
Rebecca’s role at Cornerstone certainly fits with the decision she made after her epiphany moment. “We are relatively small firm and that means everyone takes on more responsibility. The two directors see clients themselves as well as running the business, so they need another person to support them and stop their hair turning grey and that they actually getting home of an evening.
“I’ve never believed in anybody paying me a penny over what I’m worth but I’m ambitious, I’m looking to progress and for my salary to progress as I move forward in my career. I don’t expect that to happen for nothing and I wouldn’t expect that to happen if I was just coming in for the next five years and writing the same kind of report over and over. You have to make a contribution. The advisers are making a contribution to the business by bringing in the money and if that doesn’t happen then none of us are here. But as paraplanners we need to show that we can add as much value to the business in other ways, whether it’s making it easier for the advisers to bring in that money or whatever else you do, you have to make that contribution,” she says.
