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Company profile
FinalytiQ Research
profile
Challenging
perceptions
Abraham Okusanya, director of FinalytiQ,
provides investment
analysis services and is
not afraid of sticking
his neck out and
questioning some of
the industry mores
that he feels are
letting down advisers
and clients alike
Abraham Okusanya, founder and director
of research consultancy FinalytiQ, is
more than happy to stick his head above
the parapet where he feels advisers and
investors are getting a raw deal from
providers or the industry in general. Check
out his article on the Adviser Business
Review website entitled ‘Does Vanguard’s
LifeStrategy put DIMS to shame?’ and his
article criticising advisers’ use of cashflow
planning models as ‘simplistic and
misleading’, as examples.
Profitability Awards. Published via Twitter,
Okusanya named the most profitable
platform and the highest loss making
platform in three categories of platform
– Large (AUA £12.5bn or above); Mid–Sized
(AUA £5bn-12.5bn); Small (AUA £1bn-£5bn).
You can see the results by clicking here.
Most recently he has questioned the
due diligence conducted on platforms,
arguing that profitability is the key factor
advisers should be considering and that
the deep pockets played up by some
providers as essential to a sustainable
platform, are a false comparison tool. He
argues that advisers need to dig deeper to
protect their clients and their businesses,
particularly with a FCA thematic review
on due diligence in the offing. See the
article ‘Platform due diligence: Look for
profitability not deep pockets’.
The day job
He also produces ad hoc interviews with
advisers and consultants via his Google+
Hangout page, aptly entitled Adviser
Hangout (more on this later).
On a day-to-day basis, Okusanya’s
company FinalytiQ is a research
consultancy specialising in centralised
investment propositions (CIPs), platforms
and technical support for financial
planning firms.
Okusanya, who is a Chartered Financial
Planner and CFP Professional with over
eight years’ experience, is principal of the
firm that has two supporting colleagues
and typically, the company serves firms
His recently published Platform of two to three advisers with £20m-£30m
Profitability Guide goes into this theme under management as a minimum.
in depth (offered as a due diligence
tool to advisers at £200). Off the back
The investment proposition primarily
of the Guide he produced the Platform offers firms that run their own in-house
profile
model portfolios either the framework
or the investment research and analytics,
including asset allocation, to operate
a “compliant, robust, repeatable and
efficient investment process”, Okusanya
says. “As far as the investment process is
concerned we offer an end to end service.
We will sit down with the firms and look
at their current investment process and
we take it from there. So, we can define
the entire process, right from what risk
profiling tool they use, deciding what
the asset allocation is going to be and
making the fund selection, through to
writing their quarterly or half yearly
commentaries that go to the client.”
FinalytiQ sits on the investment
committee of several financial planning
firms, Okusanya explains. “We will be
involved in their quarterly or half yearly
rebalancing, depending on what’s
happening in the investment world and
how that is affecting client portfolios.
We will go away from the investment
committee meeting and make the
changes that need to be made to the
portfolio, ensuring the process is fully
documented and they’ve got evidence to
back the decisions made as far as research
and data is concerned. Then we put all
the documentation together and put up
a commentary that can be sent out to
the firm’s clients once approved. Once
confirmation is received back from the
“A good example is where you have one
clients to implement the changes, we firm with the vast majority of its clients in
then support the firm in implementing the the decumulation process i.e. drawdown,
changes on the relevant platforms.”
and you have another firm with the vast
majority of its clients in the accumulation
One size does not fit all
process i.e. they are still building their
wealth. Firm A uses Finametrica and
An investment trend that Okusanya does firm B uses Distribution Technology.
not agree with is that a series of model Imagine that, for whatever reason, both
portfolios run by outsourced investment firms decide to use the same off-thefirms can be used across any type or size shelf model portfolios. I’m quite keen to
of firm.
understand how the firms have mapped
their clients’ different sets of objectives to
“Personally, I don’t believe in the the same portfolios. It’s not to say it can’t
idea that you build off-the-shelf model be done; the question is has it been done
portfolios, designed by DFMs or properly? I don’t think that the providers
investment research houses, which are of these portfolios have taken enough
then used by hundreds and hundreds of account of the differences in firms A and
firms without any form of customisation B. And if you then have firms C, D, E, F, all
to take account of their clients, to take of them with very different client profiles
account of the firm’s view of the world, or processes…
and of the tools and processes they use
in the firm. Advisers differ in the risk
“Use the framework but it’s best to find
profiling tools they use, so if you were ways to customise that to what is going on
doing it properly, each firm would need to in the individual firms. It’s essential that
match their own risk profiling tool to the each firm has its own investment process
portfolios so that they are all doing what that takes account of its clients, that takes
they are supposed to do.
account of the views of the firm.”
“A one-size-fits-all approach is simple
but what I’ve learnt in this industry is that
just because something is simple doesn’t
mean that it works and doesn’t mean that
you’ve covered all the bases.
Passive approach
As might be expected, FinalytiQ has
designed that kind of framework for
use with its clients. Okusanya says:
profile
“We’ve designed our portfolios within
a framework and we customise that
framework to each firm, to take account
of their risk, their client profile and what’s
going on in their firm. We customise the
process to firms who have the same views
who are looking for that kind of service.”
in-house administrators. “So we would
do the investment research and write
the client reports but the information
gathering is mainly done by the adviser
in the client meeting and then the firm’s
own administrators would request all the
information as far as portfolio, existing
holding charges, projection on pension
FinalytiQ primarily uses a passive plans and so on.”
investment approach, although Okusanya
prefers to talk about beta portfolios. “I
At the moment, the firm is dealing
hate the term passive – but I do think mainly with replacement business, he
this style offers investors a better way says. “There is new money coming in too
of investing. It’s not impossible to run but the vast majority of our work has been
active portfolios or to use active funds to replacement work around investment
achieve your objectives – we have advisers and pensions. We also get involved in
as clients who run active portfolios and protection as well as trust and tax but
we sit on their investment committees – they are not something that our clients
but I think that ultimately you can do the tend to do on a regular basis.”
same or an even better job with passive
portfolios at a significantly lower cost Articles and Hangouts
and, dare I say it, less headache.”
FinalytiQ doesn’t market itself as such but
Technical services
Okusanya is a prolific producer of articles.
Writing, he says, is “one way of clarifying
Alongside the investment research, my thoughts and just helping me to lay
FinalytiQ undertakes work with platforms out what I really think about a subject or
to build deeper relationships with the issue”. It is also a way of sharing his ideas
adviser community, while the firm’s and starting debates in the industry –
technical services, Okusanya says, act like debates he hopes will have an impact and
a paraplanning service.
be catalysts or drivers for change where it
is necessary.
As such this service tends to sit between
a firm’s client-facing advisers and its
This is also the reason he produces his
Adviser Hangout videos and articles on
the hangout facility on Google+, to share
and to stimulate debate. “There is a huge
amount of knowledge and so many ideas
that we can share in the industry that
often don’t get aired. So I try to put mine
out there. Sometimes I get shot at but you
have to accept that; not everyone is going
to agree with what I have to say.”
for further information
Visit FinalytiQ website
go to platform guide website page
For more information on David J Scarlett click here:
For
Website:
more information
www.soulmillionaire.com
on FinalytiQ Research
Website:
Email: david@soulmillionaire.com
www.finalytiq.co.uk
Adviser
AdviserBusiness
BusinessReview
Review
Editor:
Editorial:
Rob
Rob
Kingsbury
Kingsbury
Email:
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robkingsbury@kgrms.co.uk
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01256411677
411677
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