Investment ratings and research provider FE has launched FE Analytics+ Investment Planner - an investment tool designed to help advisers assess clients’ attitude to risk, select suitable investment options and summarise the investment advice process in ‘client-friendly’ reports.

The company says the new suitability and risk profiling tool is customisable to advisers’ business models and their preferred investment solutions.

Matthew Surfleet, commercial director at FE said: “Establishing suitability, including discussing the risk a customer is willing and able to take and mapping appropriate investment solutions, is critical for all financial advisers.  However, the processes employed to achieve this are often manual, inefficient and can vary, even within the same firm.

“FE Analytics+ Investment Planner has the potential to become the industry standard for delivering consistent advice in one streamlined process.  Uniquely, advisers will have the freedom to map any investment solution to the most suitable risk profile.  This is because the already widely-used FE Risk Score will be used as a measure of the relative riskiness of a portfolio and this is applied to the whole of the market - no provider pays to be rated.”

A survey of advisers by FE last year found that nearly 60 per cent do not use technology in support of their centralised investment processes – although almost all highlighted the need for a one-stop solution that helps with researching, selecting and investing clients’ money, says FE.

The FE Analytics+ Investment Planner tool will allow advisers to:

•            Assess clients’ attitude to risk - powered by EValue. This is based on a risk questionnaire for clients and aims to establish the level of risk each client is willing to take and help advisers understand a client’s capacity for loss.

•           Provide investment solutions for each risk profile - using the new FE Risk Score Risk Bandings to help to map any investment solution to the most suitable risk profile.

•            Client friendly reporting - From ‘possibility of losses’ reports, that review the inherent risk of each risk grade, to ‘switch reports’ that compare the existing portfolio to the recommended portfolio.

Adam Herbert, managing director, Herbert & Webster who has already begun using FE Analytics+ Investment Planner said: “It brings all steps and processes together from the attitude to risk questionnaire, capacity for loss, the asset allocation, risk banding to the investment solution. It allows us to service all clients with all suitable investment solutions within a single software solution.”