Model portfolios are no longer fit for purpose

'Rudely awakened'

The UK retail wealth management industry is about to be very rudely awakened from its slumber of the last 13 years – which is when the global financial crisis happened.

Wealth managers, independent financial advisers and their clients are heading for some very difficult conversations over the next 12 months. In the context of wealth management, I fear something unpleasant and largely unexpected lurks below the water line for many retail investors, and my concerns are focused on the ever increasing take up of model portfolio solutions over that post-GFC period. In 2020 and 2021 these products took 25% and 26% respectively of retail flows, and that does not account for existing investors being migrated into these low-cost solutions. Fund managers ar...