| Leigh joined INN8 Invest in 2020 as head of DFM. He started in the industry in 2003 at Glacier. Leigh held several roles at Glacier including Head: Investment Administration; Head: Research; Head: Investment Solutions – a portfolio that included Glacier Research, Glacier Manco and Glacier Invest (DFM). He then joined Sanlam Multi-Manager in 2019 as Head: Business Solutions, continuing his role within the DFM, but included a broader mandate including product, distribution, proposition and institutional business. Leigh holds a BCom (Hons) and an MBA. |
What makes your business distinctive?
Our sizable investment team of more than 20 investment professionals based in Johannesburg, Cape Town, London and Jersey has more than 300 cumulative years of investment experience. We have been entrusted with more than R560-billion of assets under stewardship and more than R120-billion under direct management from our clients. INN8 Invest has won the biggest DFM Awards in the industry over the last three years: Citywire DFM Awards 2022: Best Overall Performance; Citywire DFM Awards 2023: Best Overall DFM and Citywire DFM Awards 2024: Best Overall Performance.
Our value proposition to our clients is articulated as the three Ps: Pedigree, Power and Partnerships. Investment Pedigree speaks to our demonstrative track record of outperformance over the long term. Power speaks to our ability to harness our sizable assets to access best-in-class fees from asset managers that benefit our clients directly. Partnership is arguably our most important principle as it speaks to our commitment to financial advisors and their clients.
Who is your ideal client?
Financial advisors looking to grow their client base, increase efficiencies and profitability and professionalise their practices. For INN8 Invest, it doesn’t matter how large or small the advisor practice is, as long as their aim is to improve their business, improve advice, reduce risk and are keen to partner with an independent, specialist investment business who has an actual track record of delivering investment alpha for clients.
Who are not your clients?
Our size, scale, business philosophy and client value proposition allow us to partner with financial advisors and wealth managers in different phases of their business life-cycle. It doesn’t matter whether the advisor is in their start-up phase, growth phase or thinking about succession options; we’re able to work with them. We completely respect that there are some advisors who want to be part of the investment process and others who don’t. We don’t believe in a “one-size-fits-all” solution. We’re able to cater for the needs of most advisors. So, we don’t really have financial advisors who are not our clients.
What role do you believe DFMs play in improving client outcomes?
DFMs play a crucial role in improving client outcomes. In fact, one could argue that at its very core, improving client outcomes is why DFMs exist. The truth, however, is that not all DFMs can do so. Therefore, selecting the correct DFM partner is a crucial step for advisors who are looking to improve client outcomes. DFMs should have an actual track record of outperformance; something an advisor and client can compare against other options out there.
Some argue DFMs are just another layer of costs for clients. Your response?
DFMs charge for their services, which is right. If anyone is offering a specialised professional service, they should charge for it. The question is, can the DFM add value to the client? Can they generate an outperformance net of fees charged? If the DFM can outperform its benchmark or meet the client’s expectations in terms of performance net of fees, then they’ve done their job.
Some have the view that DFMs should have performance tables like fund managers. Your perspective?
Yes, we should be able to easily compare DFM performance relative to each other, like the CIS industry does. This is unfortunately not the case. There are some DFMs not willing to disclose their performances, which is unfortunate. INN8 Invest has been at the forefront of opening the transparency of performance debate. Fortunately, we run CIS funds as well as model portfolios. The performance of our fund and model portfolios are available for anyone to see on our website. The advent of the DFM Awards has also helped. It’s now a lot clearer to see who the DFMs are who have performed well over many years.
