IRS offers new solutions
Twoex-employees of major research houses, Angela Ashton and Amanda Crowley, have set up their own independent research group, Investment Research Solutions (IRS).
Co-directors of IRS, Ashton and Crowley have worked with van Eyk and Morningstar respectively and say they will not conduct fund manager ratings but offer advice to dealer groups, master trusts and superannuation funds about how to use research data within their business.
Ashton says many smaller dealer groups are overlooked by research houses and others are unsure as how to use research in the formulation of recommended lists.
“In that role, we will be guns for hire and hope to provide specific solutions for each dealer group and also avoid a standardised approach to the creation of recommended lists,” Crowley says.
The two say they will be able to base this type of work on their prior experience with research houses but at the same time will be looking at using that experience to work with funds management groups as well.
“We think we can provide a service to funds management groups in helping them prepare for a research house visit. There are many one star managers who could be rated higher but have been let down by the presentation of poor or incorrect information,” Ashton says.
Crowley says IRS will also try to broach the gap between dealer groups and research houses.
“There has been a huge growth in the focus on ratings in recent years from almost nothing five years ago, but there is a distinct lack in the application of those ratings.”
Crowley says this is most obvious in the use of highly rated funds and warns that a list of top rated funds is a poor way to construct a recommended list and such funds can be a negative investment in the wrong context.
Despite officially kicking off three weeks ago, IRS has already landed a number of clients and is targeting smaller to mid sized dealer groups.
AUTHOR
Jason Spits
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