Building Block Course. What to Ask Your Financial Advisor: Fees, Benchmarking & More

Do you feel as if fees and services in the wealth management industry are opaque, jargon-heavy and complex? If yes, you are not alone. 

There is often a lack of transparency or clarity on fees, and wealth holders and investors are left feeling uncertain about the amount they are paying, and what they're paying for. Likewise, clients are often unclear about their portfolio’s performance, how it is measured and how it compares to other portfolios. This results in a lack of confidence that can lead to apathy or disinterest in the wealth management process, and ultimately wasted resources or suboptimal investment decisions. CLICK READ MORE.

The Beam team is delighted to announce that we have created a novel, first-of-its-kind course with expert instructors to equip you with the practical tools you need to find the information you need. We believe this course will add significant value to your wealth management journey for many years to come.

Price: 

£750 for Beam members

£1200 for non-members 

Structure

• The course will consist of three, two-hour sessions over a three- week period.
• Dates: Thurs 18 November 2021, Tues 23 November 2021 and Tues 30th November 2021
• Time: 16:00 - 18:00 GMT /08:00 - 10:00 PT / 11:00 - 13:00 ET
• Each session will be led by an expert industry professional and conducted in an interactive format that will allow participants to share their experiences and ask questions. See their biographies below. 

Outcomes

• You will feel more knowledgeable and confident about engaging with your financial advisors and asking questions related to fees, services, investments and performance.
• You will have greater understanding of and involvement in your wealth management journey.

Themes and Objectives

Session 1  18 November 2021, 16:00 - 18:00 GMT /08:00 - 10:00 PT / 11:00 - 13:00 ET

Guest Instructor: Annamaria Koerling (Delfin Private Office LLP Managing Partner)

Understanding fees

• Understand exactly what you are paying your wealth managers or advisors                                                       
  • Know what fees and costs to inquire about, what they mean, who they are going to, and how they are calculated.
  • Understand fee terminology such as advisory fees, Total Expense Ratio, Assets Under Management (AUM) percentage fees, basis points, platform fees and more.
  • Know if your fees are competitive, and commensurate with the services you receive

     Session 2  23 November 2021, 16:00 - 18:00 GMT /08:00 - 10:00 PT / 11:00 - 13:00 ET  

Guest Instructors: Jennifer LeChevalier (IQ-EQ Director, Private Wealth, Jersey) and Stephen Griffiths (Saranac Partners)

Understanding Services and Selecting the Right Advisor

• Know what services different advisors offer
• Know how to select the correct advisor for you if your needs differ from the services you are receiving
• Understand the meaning of a model portfolio
• Values-aligned investment managers

Session 3 30 November  2021, 16:00 - 18:00 GMT /08:00 - 10:00 PT / 11:00 - 13:00 ET

Guest Instructor: Samantha McBride (Founder @ BYOB)

Understanding Your Portfolio: benchmarking performance

Know how to benchmark the performance of your portfolio

• What types of benchmarks are there?
• Why might an advisor use one type of benchmark over another type?
• What are the major benchmarks that you may see on your reports? Who produces them and how are they calculated?
• How should you decide on a benchmark for your portfolio? 
• What is an Investment Policy Statement?

Understand Your Asset Allocation

• Understand the meaning of diversification and asset allocation
• How should you decide whether or not to include alternatives or private asset classes in your portfolio?
• What tools and analysis might you expect to see? What do they mean?
• What return expectations should you have for your asset allocation? How can you 'sense check' what your advisor is telling you?

Price: 

£750 for Beam members

£1200 for non-members 

Members, please register your interest on this page to receive your invoice.

*Non-members will be required to complete The Beam's application form, which the team will send you in advance, once you've registered your interest. 

Biographies

Annamaria Koerling

Delfin Private Office LLP Managing Partner

Annamaria has 28 years of experience in advising international families. She had senior roles at Schroders, Cazenove Capital, Merrill Lynch and headed Wealth Management at C Hoare & Co before joining Delfin in 2017. She specialises in giving strategic wealth advice, drawing on her multi-jurisdictional expertise in wealth management, banking, regulation and private markets. Annamaria also has current non-executive roles at the Jersey Financial Services Commission, Praesidium SGR & Golden Springs Group as well as serving on the Queens’ Cambridge investment committee and as a trustee of the choral charity Ora. Annamaria studied modern languages at Cambridge and is a Chartered Wealth Manager. She is passionate about supporting businesses where at least one of the founders is a woman and collaborates with the Judge Business School on their female leadership programmes.

Jennifer Le Chevalier

IQ-EQ Director, Private Wealth, Jersey

Jennifer joined the business in 2008 from a leading private bank. A practitioner with 28 years’ industry experience in both private client and corporate disciplines, she has particular experience in supporting the family office environment with a keen interest in supporting ESG and philanthropic initiatives. Jennifer has completed the STEP certificate in family business advising. She has significant experience supporting UK resident non-domiciled families and has a large team reporting to her covering an international client base and a variety of asset classes.

Stephen Griffiths, Saranac Partners

Steve joined Saranac Partners in August 2017.

A Chartered Tax Advisor by background, he has a career in tax/financial services spanning 30 years including time at PwC, UBS, Credit Suisse, Coutts and latterly JP Morgan.

He studied Geology at Imperial College and has a Masters from Royal Holloway College. He also holds the DipPFS qualification.

Samantha McBride

Founder @ BYOB | Multi-Asset Class Portfolio Manager

Samantha has more than a decade of experience in multi-asset class portfolio construction and management, serving ultra-high net worth individuals, family offices and institutional investors. Her career has spanned a broad range of roles, including as an investment manager at global investment firm Partners Capital and as a portfolio manager at a quant-driven hedge fund. In 2019, she launched a software business which aims to transform the wealth and asset management industry by helping investment teams to harness the full power of data and streamline their investment processes.