| Marius is a founding member of Amity Investment Solutions and the chief executive officer of the company. As the author of Amity’s goals-based value proposition he continuously researches financial planning and investment trends to ensure the company is at the cutting edge of delivering financial wellbeing to investors. Marius has more than 25 years’ experience in the financial services industry. He holds a BCom (Hons) degree and is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®). He recently completed his thesis for a MPhil degree with the title “The determinants of financial wellbeing”. |
What makes your business distinctive?
What sets Amity apart is that we are intentionally a niche market DFM. Rather than trying to serve everyone, we focus on partnering with like-minded independent advisors who prioritise guiding their clients towards long-term financial wellbeing. To support this, we provide advisors with an end-to-end investment management solution, including a goals-based investment plan, suitability assessment and review plan. Additionally, we believe that traditional investment strategies are not well-suited to the needs of private investors. Achieving consistent, predetermined outcomes is critical for a financial plan to succeed and achieve clients’ goals.
Who is your ideal client?
We have built a community of like-minded advisors who value their independence and are always seeking ways to enhance the value they provide. They typically have a growth mindset and are dedicated to improving their services by integrating behavioural factors into their approach to achieving financial wellbeing. The advisors we partner with have a clear understanding of the value they bring to clients, which is managing the clients’ financial journey. By outsourcing investment management to us, our advisor partners strengthen their investment offering, thus freeing up time to improve client service and boost efficiency.
What role do you believe DFMs play in improving client outcomes?
Research shows that clients expect more than just investment solutions from advisors; they seek guidance that helps them live their best life and achieve overall wellbeing. Clients are willing to pay more for this type of advice. To meet these expectations, advisors must evolve their approach from simply conducting a needs analysis and recommending products to offering a comprehensive financial plan serving as a tailored roadmap to financial wellbeing. We believe a DFM plays a crucial role in ensuring the desired outcomes are achieved by implementing an evidence-based investment strategy. This requires ongoing research, due diligence and active portfolio management.
Some argue DFMs are just another layer of costs for clients. Your response?
It’s possible for a DFM to merely put a few multi-asset funds into a model. However, we believe real value is added when the model is continuously researched and actively managed. That is why we believe in a building-block approach. We play an active role in constructing evidence-based portfolios with specific outcomes in mind. This approach enables us to actively manage asset allocation while selecting complementary building block managers for each asset class. It also allows us to manage the portfolio’s risk budget effectively. By combining passive and active managers, hedge funds, and managing both local and offshore allocations, we tailor the portfolio to meet each mandate’s criteria.
Some have the view that DFMs should have performance tables like fund managers. Your perspective?
We publish our performance as measured against the four pillars of our outcomes-based strategy. We believe in transparency. We publicly report both the absolute and relative performance measure. However, one must be careful to not only measure a DFM’s value in terms of relative performance.
The question should be: is the DFM delivering the investment outcomes it set out to do…
What are the biggest challenges you see facing DFMs in the next decade?
Although I know DFMs add value, it cannot only be measured by investment returns. The biggest challenge for DFMs is to demonstrate the value they add beyond returns to the end client.
