Model Portfolios  

Ex-Thesis director returns with MPS comparison site for advisers

The target for the year was 50, though Cook stressed it was not imperative for the running of the business to get there.

But he is confident the service will sign up a good number of DFMs. "Clearly, if you're serious about distributing discretionary model portfolio services to the IFA, I think most DFM businesses would be keen to to get involved," he said.

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He has pledged to be "fair to all DFMs" in the services's pricing structure. "In that sense, I suspect, we will be seen as pretty disruptive in the marketplace."

Lawrence said the project had emerged out of a meeting with his former colleague at Thesis, Gaurav Gupta, and a further former colleague.

"We all felt that this was something that the market wants, and we can deliver it better and cheaper than it was done at the moment," he said.

"[DFMs] will find not only does it deliver great service and data back to the DFMs about IFA behaviour...which will be valuable to them. I think they'll find they might be able to save money elsewhere.

"So cheaper for IFAs, more cost effective for DFMs, more transparent, and ultimately good for consumers too."

carmen.reichman@ft.com