Barrie & Hibbert

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Creating a robust planning process using Barrie & Hibbert solutions

To enable a client or their adviser to make appropriate planning decisions it is essential that the identification and communication of risk is central to the planning process.

Firms should satisfy themselves that, at the time they select investments for customers, they have reasonably considered what risks could be associated with the investment and that they understand these.

FSA Investment Suitability Guidance Paper February 2011

It is now essential that the risk and return characteristics of a financial plan are communicated to a client in understandable terms. This issue can be solved by providing the client with a personalised projection of likely outcomes against their stated financial or cash-flow objectives, based on an existing or proposed investment strategy.

Further enabling the client or their adviser to perform a series of “what-if” scenarios to better understand their financial planning options will significantly improve the communication of risk – for instance by helping to communicate to the client the core decisions within their financial plan:

• What happens if I change my investment strategy?
• What happens if I change my contributions?
• What do I need to do to make my financial plan sustainable?

Supporting better planning decisions is the core objective of the Barrie & Hibbert suite of products and services and we have created a financial planning engine designed to meet the needs of a wide range of advice propositions.

The Wealth Scenario Generator (WSG) is Barrie & Hibbert’s core stochastic projection engine designed to enable solutions for the retail product manufacturing and advice market.

The WSG is a comprehensive and flexible engine and will power any online toolset that requires stochastic analysis. It is currently used within client applications ranging from holistic financial planning services, product comparisons, “what-if” toolsets, DC pension planning portals and direct to consumer warp platforms.

The economic data used within the WSG is created by Barrie & Hibbert’s ESG, the market leading economic scenario generator.

Our Solution

The WSG helps clients and advisers capture, measure, understand and communicate risk

• Communicate risk and return consistently across your entire product range
• The ideal solution to help clients understand their “capacity for loss”
• Power compliant and consistent planning processes with a single solution
• Suitable for a wide range of different advice and global financial planning problems