Counting the cost of agent as client

Among IFAs who outsource, many use agent as client (AAC) agreements where they are the client of the DFM and their own clients are kept at arm's length from the discretionary. However, last summer the Personal Finance Society (PFS) issued a paper highlighting several risks to this model, fearing these weren't being recognised by advisers. But what is the reality? "Sometimes there's an inference that AAC is simply the easiest thing for IFAs but it's much more than that," says Lawrence Cook head of UK intermediary distribution Sanlam. "AAC helps deliver market access to quite sophisticated...