FE fundinfo partners with Square Mile to launch fund dashboard

Square Mile Investment Consulting and Research (Square Mile) and FE fundinfo are to assist financial advisers in their fund selection through the launch of a Fund Dashboard.

The fund dashboard is an easy-to-interpret overview of core fund information designed to help advisers assess a fund’s ability to meet clients’ investment objectives.

A joint venture between Square Mile and FE fundinfo, two leading specialists in fund analysis, the Fund Dashboard aims to deliver a significant amount of information in an easily understood format and is the result of a broad industry consultation to determine which aspects should be included. The resulting development aims to provide a comprehensive view of key fund characteristics to support informed fund selection based on five key elements:

• Opinion: A combination of a qualitative and quantitative assessment of a fund’s ability to meet its objectives through Square Mile’s Fund Ratings and FE fundinfo’s Crown Fund Ratings respectively.
• Performance: A representation of a fund’s absolute annualised return during the time frame stipulated in its objective and its performance versus its objective.
• Risk: An assessment of the risk of the fund and the asset class in which it invests as well as its Synthetic Risk and Reward Indicator (SRRI) profile and the fund’s maximum drawdown within the period stipulated in its objective.
  Cost: An overview of the fund’s ongoing charges, its transaction costs and the total cost of ownership.
• ESG credentials: An assessment of ESG credentials at a company and fund level based on Square Mile’s ESG Integration Assessments.

The Fund Dashboard will be a primary interface hosted on the Square Mile website and advisers will be able to click on each section to gain further information and insight.

The final concept behind the Fund Dashboard is announced today to asset managers, advisers and other industry participants and will go live in Q1 2020. Each Fund Dashboard will be reassessed on a quarterly basis and while they will initially be allocated to vehicles within the Square Mile Academy of Funds, they will be rolled out to all UK-domiciled active and passive open-ended funds in due course.

Square Mile Managing Director Richard Romer-Lee said, “In a world that has become digitally enabled, the Fund Dashboard is a simple, visual snapshot to help advisers identify funds that may be suitable for their clients.

“The combination of Square Mile’s fund ratings and FE fundinfo Crown Fund Ratings brings together the collective intelligence of Square Mile’s team of analysts and FE fundinfo’s widely recognised quantitative ratings methodology. Together with the other elements represented – risk, performance, costs and ESG considerations – the Fund Dashboard offers a succinct summary of a large quantity of key fund information in one place. Advisers can then interpret the aspects most relevant to their clients as well as explore others which they may have not previously considered.”

Stephen Mitchell, Head of Proposition at FE fundinfo, said, “As a leader in the global funds industry it is our goal to provide investors, advisers, asset managers and all those operating within the industry with clear, accurate and independent data, in order to stay up-to-date and make well-informed investment decisions.

“As such, we are supportive of any initiative that aims to clearly communicate complex fund information and help investors make sense of a fund’s underlying performance, risk and associated costs. Within the industry our research, data and technology are highly-respected and, by working with Square Mile to develop this funds Fund Dashboard, to we will add even more transparency to the world of investing.”

Phil Wagstaff, Global Head of Distribution at Jupiter Asset Management, said, “This looks like a great initiative: two recognised brands in the fund analysis space coming together to provide advisers with information in an innovative format. The easy-to-read, succinct, digital format is user friendly and modern.”

Jasper Berens, Head of Distribution, Artemis Fund Managers, said, “In this digital age, it is great to see Square Mile and FE fundinfo create a new initiative that presents key fund information in an easy, unique and modern way. At Artemis, we believe this is an important step in helping to support advisers and their clients in fund selection."