Sound advice for investment

“Investment houses are ditching the middle men” declares the sub-head in (MW September 21).

Schroder certainly isn’t. Very sensibly, many consumers want to use expert advice before trusting someone else with their hard-earned cash.

As Charles McKelvey points out, many are baffled by the complex choice on offer. Others are simply not interested or, like me, they have other things they’d rather be spending their time on.

Advice helps us to feel more confident about where we place our money and good recommendations from “middle men” easily earn back any costs in fees or commission.

However, as your article states, most consumers have little if any awareness of investment houses. That makes financial advisers’ jobs harder – not only do they have to come up with good advice, they also have to reassure their clients that companies such as Schroder is a trustworthy home for their money.

A core part of Rapier’s brief is to help us to bring our brand to life in consumers’ minds. For consumers who like to seek advice makes their advisers’ job easier when recommending our products.

For consumers who prefer to come direct, it will make them consider the benefits of using an investment specialist with a wealth of experience and resources rather than going to more famous new kids on the block such as Virgin and Egg.

We want to support consumers whichever way they want to buy our products. This means supporting advisers in the important job they do – not ditching them.

Robert Higginbotham

UK Retail Marketing Director

Schroder

London EC3