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Discretionary Fund Management
Gina Miller, SCM Private
“Discretionary Fund Management is a good route for those who are time poor, who don’t want to think about investment decisions on a daily basis and who are comfortable with handing over all investment decisions to a qualified expert third party.” SCM Private’s Gina Miller explains the advantages of opting for Discretionary Fund Management.
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ina Miller’s career in the financial services sector began in 1992 when she established one of the first specialist financial services marketing
agencies in the UK. Over her entire working career she has been the founder or co-founder of seven innovative businesses in different markets. The common cornerstones that have driven the ethics of all these businesses are respect for customers, total transparency, responsible capitalism, and always being prepared to be a provocative voice when confronted with systems or markets operating with conflicts of interest and anti- consumerism.
Can you tell us a little more about your professional background?
In June 2009, I co-founded SCM Private (SCM), a specialist modern investment manager which operates with simplicity, transparency, fair fees and a contrarian mindset. In terms of our investment strategy, our focus is on achieving consistent performance through a highly diversified, low volatility, efficient and robust
methodology and stripping out as many layers of cost as possible; all underpinned by a contrarian mindset. The testament to our belief in our proposition is that both founders are significantly co-invested alongside clients on exactly the same terms and fees. But trying to be innovative and operate with 100% transparency is commercial suicide and we found ourselves competing in a very uneven, even hostile, playing field which creates barriers to entry for any innovative entrants wanting to penetrate a rather duplicitous UK financial services market.
In January 2012 we started the True and Fair Campaign calling for 100% transparency on all fees and holdings in a uniformed format across the UK savings and investment industry. Although separate to SCM, the ethos of the True and Fair Campaign is integral to everything we do at SCM.
Since we launched the Campaign in 2012 we have seen growing support among the industry, consumers and government. As part of the Campaign, we also developed the UK’s first independent investment calculator www. trueandfaircalculator.com, which reveals the
impact of costs and fees on investments, in one number. The government and industry is starting to listen, and recently MEPs voted to include an online fund calculator within the new rules on Packaged Retail Investment Products, which were voted through at both the Council and Parliamentary stages in October and November this year.
I believe passionately that investors should be provided with the basic rights of knowing how much they are paying, where their money is invested and what they are really buying. In terms of fees, a Total Cost of Investing in one single number, in pounds and pence is the only option. I am pleased that there is growing recognition that investors need to be better protected and given clear, transparent information on where they are putting their money but I am also sceptical that actions may not proceed after the ego stroking and rhetoric dies down.
One of the main objections I have come across whilst campaigning, is that it is impossible to calculate one number and that unless any proposal is 100% accurate the industry cannot proceed. Whilst I accept no one has a crystal
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