Asset manager Due Diligence with one click!

Before you invest any money, you should be fully aware of the company with whom you are investing, the investment philosophy being used, who the portfolio manager is, and whether the company is properly registered and insured. Other matters such as what would happen in case of a disaster such as a cyber-attack or fire, succession planning in the company and, if it is important to you, the ESG and B-BBEE credentials.

In most cases, one realises that this information is difficult for them to collate so turns to advisors who, they trust, have all the above information and more at their fingertips.

But do they? How many financial advisors, wealth managers, multi-managers, discretionary fund managers (DFMs) or asset consultants (“fund selectors”) have assembled the necessary information to be able to choose the correct funds for their clients?

Collating this information is known as conducting “due diligence” and requires asking a host of questions of every portfolio manager to find the correct one for the client.

Typically, this information is gathered using a Due Diligence Questionnaire (DDQs). Many, but by no means all, fund selectors send annual questionnaires to some, but not all, portfolio managers.

A recent survey showed that every asset management firm reported that at least 66% of DDQs asked the same questions as other DDQs.

Due Diligence SA (DDSA)™ creates a useful commodity of the DDQ which can be downloaded for a small fee in a standard format. This questionnaire has been curated by selecting only the best, most thorough questions, from many different DDQs. The DFM, wealth consultant and asset consultant know that the questionnaire covers all the basic detail about the manager and can add value to its process in how it uses that information. The asset manager vastly reduces the time and resources used to complete the questionnaires and can deploy those resources more productively.

The questionnaires are validated and curated by DDSA using over 40 years’ knowledge in the industry and are kept up to date.