WEALTHSIMPLE

• Wealthsimple provides smart, simple investing without the regular high fees and account minimums that comes with traditional investment management.
• According to the company CEO, Michael Katchen, Wealthsimple is "building the world's most human financial company."
• The company invests customers' money in a "globally diversified portfolio of low-cost index funds."
• Using Wealthsimple's cutting-edge technology, customers can earn the best possible return on investment while optimizing their tax bill at the same time.
• Wealthsimple's mission is to provide smarter financial services to everyone, regardless of age or net worth.
• Some of their offerings to customers include automatic rebalancing, tax-loss harvesting, and dividend reinvesting.

Product Offerings

•  Wealthsimple Invest is an intelligent portfolio of low-fee funds designed to meet individual financial goals.
• This method offers different kinds of investments, which include auto-deposits, dividend reinvesting, and automatic rebalancing.
• Wealthsimple Invest provides five types of accounts: personal, traditional IRA, Roth IRA, SEP IRA, joint, and trust.
• Wealthsimple currently manages funds from 175,000 people.
• Wealthsimple Save offers a low-risk investment account, another way of saving extra cash with 18x higher returns than the national savings account average.
• It automatically saves the change leftover from purchases when the figure is rounded up to an integer.
• Wealthsimple Save comes with unlimited free transactions, no account minimum, and no low balance fees.

Target Audience

• Wealthsimple is targeting millennials who want to start saving very early in life.
• The company is also targeting young people who do not trust big banks and dislike paperwork.

NUTMEG

• Nutmeg claims to be "the UK's first online discretionary investment management company."
• Using technology, the company is on a mission towards democratizing wealth management by minimizing costs and charges and boosting the customers' returns.
• They claim to be the fastest uprising digital wealth management service in the UK. [s6]
• The company wants to change the method people manage their funds by combining an investment team with more than 100 years' experience in intuitive technology, offering the whole of UK high-quality wealth management and personalized financial advisory services with a totally transparent charging.
• Nutmeg claims to have gotten rid of all hidden ways customers lose money, such as premium charges, confusing benchmarks, use of technical jargon, lump sum, high fees charged, and sneaky charges.

Product Offerings

•  Nutmeg ISA offers transparent and flexible expertly built stocks and shares that customers can invest all at once, starting with 100% cash or drip-feeding money into the market.
• ISA is an individual savings account and a great module to protect one's money from tax.
• There are various types of ISAs available, including cash ISA, stocks and shares ISA, innovative finance ISA, and Lifetime ISA.
• With ISA, customers get value for their money as there are no hidden fees, and it is easy to set up.
• With Lifetime ISA, customers get a 25% government bonus. For every £4 invested, the customer receives a £1 bonus, with a maximum of £1,000 per year, which can be put towards an individual's first home or retirement.
• Lifetime ISA can be invested in these three portfolio categories: fixed allocation portfolios, fully managed portfolios, and socially responsible portfolios.
•  Nutmeg Pension provides an "easy to use and intelligent personal plan."
• This plan allows the transfer of pension and can also be accessed from anywhere at any time.

Target Audience

• Nutmeg Lifetime ISA is targeting UK residents aged 18-39, citizens looking to acquire a property, and people interested in saving for their children and grandchildren.
• The company is also targeting customers who are not in dire need to reduce their debt, have appropriate insurance, have spare capital or income to invest, and customers who have enough money for emergencies.

WEALTHIFY

Overview

• Wealthify was founded in October 2014 and was launched to the public in April 2016.
• The company was co-founded by Dr Richard Theo, Richard Avery-Wright, and Michelle Pearce, to provide a "low-cost, easy to use" investing platform for everyone, irrespective of their investment experience or wealth.
• The company is headquartered in Cardiff, UK, and employs 32+ people.
• The company has received a total funding amount of £1.1 million.
• Wealthify acquired by the Aviva Group in October 2017.
• Wealthify is regulated and authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK, and backed by Aviva, the global financial services company.

Products

•  General Investments: Easy investments from £1 for any period determined by the customer.
•  Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs): Investment opportunity for residents of the UK to invest or save as much as £20,000 tax efficiently per year.
•  Ethical Investments: Ethical investment plans allow people to invest in organizations focused on positively impacting the environment and society.
•  Junior ISA: A "tax-efficient" savings account created for children under the age of 18.
•  ISA Transfer: The ability to transfer previous investment or cash ISAs with other providers to Wealthify.

Target Audience

• Wealthify targets the mass market. They intend to convert 1 million UK savers to investors in the next decade.
• The company states that they target everyone irrespective of their investment experience.
• The company's products generally appeal to two major groups of people, who are existing investors and frustrated savers.

MONEYFARM

Overview

• Moneyfarm launched in Italy in April 2012, and in the UK in February 2016.
• The company was co-founded by Paolo Galvani and Giovanni Dapra and is headquartered in London.
• They have over 130 employees and serve 40,000+ customers across Europe.
• Moneyfarm has received a total funding of $127.3 million across 8 funding rounds, with the latest being a Series C round in September 2019.
• The company guarantees its customers investment coverage up to £85,000 from the UK deposit guarantee scheme. They are also authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) UK.
• Some major investors in the company are Allianz Global Investors, Cabot Square Capital, United Ventures, UK Private Equity Firm, and Ventures Capital Fund.

Products

•  Pension: This service is a "fully managed, self-invested personal pension" (SIPP) where a customers pension is managed by the company's investment team.
•  Pension Drawdown: This service offers customers flexibility in accessing their pensions, either by generating steady incomes, withdrawing lump sums or both.
•  ISA: Moneyfarm offers its customers a "flexible. tax-efficient, and fully managed" stocks and shares ISA to enable them to achieve their financial goals.
•  General Investment: The company offers its customers a low cost and flexible general investment account tailor-made to the needs of each customer, and managed by their in-house experts.

Target Audience

• Moneyfarm targets millennials in the UK and Italy, providing them expert advice to enable them make informed investment decisions.
• The company does not target novice investors, instead, they are focused on serving financially experienced people who are unable to invest by themselves due to lack of time or confidence, or possibly due to other more pressing priorities.

RESEARCH STRATEGY

SCALABLE

Company overview

• Founded in 2008, Scalable Software operates as a developer in SaaS-based IT Asset Intelligence assisting companies without clarity in asset location, IT inventory, license liability, and usage.
• The company was created with a vision "to build a true PaaS on which ITAM applications could be built recognizing that SaaS was the wave of the future."
• They trade and support their solutions through a system of long-standing global partner relationships.
• Scalable's global headquarters is located in London, while its US headquarters is in Austin, Texas.
• Scalable Software claims to be a pioneer in SaaS-based IT Asset Management, with a continued concentration on assuring that it facilitates reduced costs for companies and is ready for the transient nature of IT assets.
• Many organizations globally utilize its solutions to manage expense across their IT estates. These companies have reported a significant ROI, along with a decrease in their total cost of ownership.

Product offerings

• Asset Vision Workstation: Scalable's Asset Vision Workstation provides assistance with cost reduction by distinguishing assets that are underutilized and underperforming. Some key feature of the workstation include location mapping, license allocation and reconciliation, multiple licensing metrics, entitlement importing, consolidation of all inventory sources, etc.
• This product acts as a software usage metering technology and provides its user with a forensic-level usage analysis of web applications, virtual desktops applications, and virtual and traditional and applications.
• Server resources such as SQL Server databases and Oracle are accessible through the asset vision workstation. Through the identification of software and hardware assets which can be recycled, retired, or reconfigured, the work station helps reduce cost.
• Asset Vision Mobile: "Asset Vision Mobile enables the non-intrusive management, configuration, and securing of endpoint devices such as iPhones, iPads and Android devices".
• With the help of Mobile Device Management features, Asset Vision Mobile supports a mobile workforce to maintain similar resource access and protections as the established on-premise workstations.
• Some key features of Asset Vision Mobile include complete Apple device enrollment program assistance, detailed device inventory, successful integration with internal directory systems, automatic identification of breach of policy.
• Asset Vision Server: The Vision Server helps its user to obtain precise and updated data with no disruptions.
• Asset Vision Server provides the background information required to support IT and ITSM operations in corporations of all sizes.
• Some key features include virtualization awareness, SQL Server and Oracle database discovery, discovered services, virtual server history tracking, and comprehensive baselines.

Target audience

• Scalable Software's target market includes companies seeking to manage expense and ongoing cost management throughout their IT estates whether its mobile environments, public cloud, on-premise, or hybrid cloud.
• Scalable is also targeting companies interested in SaaS offering, cloud management, and SAM and ITAM.

BREWIN DOLPHIN

Company overview

• As stated on the 'About Us' section of its website, "Brewin Dolphin was founded on the belief that the successful management of wealth takes an understanding of money but is rooted in an even deeper understanding of people."
• According to Crunchbase, the company serves as one of the United Kingdom's top suppliers of personalized and unrestricted wealth management services, providing financial planning, as well as investment management, services to satisfy investors and intermediaries.
• The company claims to be an independent corporate group, and therefore, provides impartial guidance from an array of investment possibilities.
• Brewin Dolphin is experienced in assisting individuals with thinking through the challenges and possibilities that impact them to fabricate investment portfolios and financial plans.
• They claim to have the capacity to develop strong relationships and has about 30 different offices throughout Ireland and Britain to help bring them close to the people they serve.

Product offerings

• Wealth Management: Brewin Dolphin has helped clients manage their lives by providing consultation and investments that optimizes opportunities to expand their wealth for the past 250 years.
• Brewin Dolphin helps customers with financial planning, investment management, integrated wealth management, and fees and charges.
• Some services rendered here include saving for retirement, Liontrust backing growth investments, and investing for children.
• Direct online investment: Brewin Dolphin offers investing that is accessible, manageable, and cost-efficient beginning at £2,000.
• They offer investment, stocks and shares ISA, and junior ISA accounts. Brewin already has about £42.4 billion in client money in their care.

Target audience

• Brewin Dolphin targets individuals, financial advisory, charities, and solicitors and accountants wanting to begin their personal financial plan and manage their wealth.

BARCLAYS WEALTH

• A division of Barclay's Bank, Barclays Wealth Management offers tailored and proactive wealth management solutions for individual customers.
• Members gain access to a 24/7 Wealth Services team, their own Wealth Management Executive for day-to-day and executions as well as a dedicated Wealth Manager for planning and advisory purposes.
• Offices with Wealth Management personnel are located all over the UK.

• This sector of Barclays Bank offers a special wealth current account, special credit cards, savings accounts, planning services, advice services, lending and mortgages.
• Their services can be tiered from simply executionary services to full-service discretionary banking.

• Barclays Wealth Management offers its services to wealthy individuals (this is, unfortunately, not defined on their website nor in literature), charities, professionals and entrepreneurs.

• The annual report for Barclays Bank does not offer revenue breakdown for just its wealth management. The closest available revenue is that Barclays Bank made £772 million on advisory services and £1.002 billion on brokerage and execution.
• Barclays Bank's total revenue for 2018 was £13.6 billion. This includes its Barclaycard business, which has a significant global reach.

• No Wealth Management (or even total) customer figures are published in Barclays Bank's annual report.

HSBC PREMIER

• HSBC Premier is a range of preferential products and services suitable for households with an annual income of £75,000 or more. Applicants are required to have either £50,000 in savings or another HSBC product like mortgage or insurance.

• HSBC Premier Account holders can gain access to special current and savings accounts, Premier credit cards, investment advice, special ISAs, mortgage services, children's accounts, wealth management services, advisory services, Premier mortgages, insurance and worldwide/international banking solutions.
• The current, savings, loan products and credit cards have preferential rates for Premier members.
• Premier members gain access to an online personalized portfolio, online sharedealing and an online fund platform.
• Members can use HSBC advisers to create custom financial plans.

• HSBC Premier accounts target "mass affluent and emerging affluent customers who value international connectivity," individuals and families. Additionally, thanks to HSBC's global network, Premier account holders from other countries can open a UK-based Premier account with relevant proof of address.
• Premier is not intended for HNWI and UHNWI, as these persons are targeted with HSBC's Private Banking solutions.

• Revenue from only Premier customers is not available in the HSBC annual report.
• HSBC's total annual revenue from retail banking and wealth management was $7.1 billion worldwide.

• HSBC has 38 million individual customers, but it is not stated how many of them are Premier account holders.

RESEARCH STRATEGY

Llyods

1. Overview

•  Llyods Private Bank is an arm of Llyods Banking Group. Company overview information was only available for Llyods Banking Group, which we describe in the following findings.
• The bank "is a leading UK based financial services group."
• Llyods' main business segments are commercial banking, retail banking, corporate banking, insurance, investment provision, and pensions.
• Llyods "operates the UK's largest retail bank."
• Llyods is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange.
• The bank is among "the largest companies within the FTSE 100."

2. Products & Services Offered

• Llyods Private Bank offers eight categories of services. Of those, two service categories offer specific products and two other service categories offer sub-services.
• The remaining four categories don't list specific products or sub-services, so they are general categories (e.g. Mobile Banking). The following findings first state the service category, followed by the products or sub-services offered for each.
•  Banking & Deposits — Products: Featured Current Accounts; Savings & Deposits
•  Lending & Financing — Products: Loans; Overdrafts; Partnership Lending; Mortgages; Credit Cards
•  Investment Management - Services: Discretionary Managed Portfolios; ISA & Pensions; Tax Advice; Inheritance Tax Planning; Trusts; Wills; Estate Administration
•  Wealth Management — Services: Creating a Trust; Creating a Will; Estate Administration
•  International Banking 
•  Internet Banking 
•  Mobile Banking 
•  Telephone Banking 

3. Target Audience

• Llyods Private Bank's target audience are people that have (1) investments and/or savings through Llyods Bank that total £250,000 minimum and/or (2) a Llyods Bank mortgage that equals or exceeds £750,000.
• Those people are the bank's target audience because those are the two requirements for applying to become a Llyods Private Banking customer.

4. Revenue

• The metric that Llyods Banking Group uses to report earnings for its Private Banking & Asset Management segment is "underlying basis total."
• Accordingly, the underlying basis total for Llyods' Private Banking & Asset Management segment was £97 million in 2018, which equates to $106,503,288. We converted that amount from Euros to USD by using this currency calculator.
• With regard to the company overall, the main metric Llyods Banking Group uses to report annual earnings is net income. Accordingly, Llyods' Retail segment had net income of £10.316 million ($11,326,679,623) in 2018.
• Llyods' Commercial Banking segment had net income of £4.622 million ($5,074,826,795) in 2018.
• Llyods' Insurance & Wealth segment had net income of £1.988 million ($2,182,768,427) in 2018.
• Lastly, the remaining segment was listed as "Other" which had net income that totaled £842 million ($924,492,462) in 2018.

5. Customer Count

• Since Llyods Private Bank is an arm of Llyods Banking Group, customer count information was only available for Llyods Banking Group. That information is presented in the findings below within this section.
• Llyods Banking Group overall has approximately 26 million customers, rendering it "the largest UK retail financial services provider."
• Llyods Banking Group reported that it has 15.7 million active digital banking customers, rendering it "the largest digital bank in the UK"

Coutts

1. Overview

• Coutts is "[t]he UK private banking unit of the Royal Bank of Scotland."
• The bank has been in business for over 300 years.
• Coutts has been recognized as the "Best Private Bank in the UK."
• The bank provides both commercial and private banking services.
• Coutts' overall customer base includes corporations, wealth families, charities, and wealthy individuals.
• The bank has over 20 offices across Wales and England.

2. Products & Services Offered

•  Coutts' service categories are Private Banking, Wealth Management, and Online Investing.
•  For Private Banking, Coutts offers borrowing, mortgages, commercial banking, and general banking services.
•  For Wealth Management, Coutts offers advice services, investment services, specialist planning services, and alternative investing.
•  Online Investing is a general service category.
• According to another source, the bank "provides banking, lending and investment services, including early-stage investment opportunities and wealth services relating to inheritance tax, philanthropy and the running of a family business. The bank also provides financial education for clients’ children" (8)
• Another source stated that the bank's "[s]ervices include investment management, securities dealing, trust planning, pension and tax advice, credit cards, and mortgages."

3. Target Audience

• Coutts' target audience is wealthy people, as the bank is "famous for serving only millionaires."
• Specifically, the target audience includes people who have (1) investable assets that total a minimum of £1 million or (2) an annual salary that equals or exceeds £500,000.
• We know that people who meet one of the two aforementioned financial-means requirements are Coutts' target audience because those are the requirements for being a customer of Coutts.
• Coutts has recently begun to expand its target audience by focusing on a younger demographic of wealthy individuals, specifically well-to-do YouTubers and gamers. The reason for that new focus is because the bank is working "to become more 'modern and contemporary' while keeping its roots and traditions."
• We also found that approximately 85% of Coutts' clients are British.

4. Revenue

• According to Hoovers, Coutts' estimated revenue (not specific to any particular year) is $1,022,230,000.
• Also according to Hoovers, Coutts' estimated net income (not specific to any particular year) is $296,450,000.
• The aforementioned data points were the only relevant ones we could find pertaining to revenue or other similar metrics.

5. Customer Count

• Coutts had 14,000 customers as of 2017. That was the most-recent data we could find.
• According to a 2017 article, Coutts had nearly 100 YouTubers and eGamers as customers.

Research Strategy

ST. JAMES PLACE

Company Overview

• St. James Place Group was founded by Sir Mark Weinberg, Mike Wilson CBE and Lord Rothschild in 1991 and is based in Cirencester, England.

• The Company provides "wealth management services to individuals, families, trustees, and businesses across the UK."

• The Company started trading in 1992 under the name of the J. Rothschild Assurance Group.

• St. James Place began Public trading on the London stock exchange in 1997.

• The Company is a member of the FTSE 100 financial services group with $134.8 billion (£109.3 billion) of client funds under management.

• In 1992, the Company founded a charitable foundation called St. James's Place Charitable Foundation. The charity has "raised and distributed over $99.9 million (£81 million) to charities."

• The Company is a recipient of numerous awards. An example is the "Wealth Management Company of the Year award" at the "City of London Wealth Management Awards" which it has won for the past five years.

• Other awards of the Company include Best Wealth Planning Team and Best High Net Worth Team which were both won at the 2019 Wealth Adviser Awards.

Company Financials

• St. James Place company's revenue in 2018 was $3.322 billion (£2.694 billion).

• In 2018, St. James Place achieved a "full-year gross inflows of $19.36 billion (£15.7 billion). This represents an 8% increase over 2017 figures.

• The Company's funds under management were a record $117.9 billion (£95.6 billion).

• The Company's financial accounts show a company profit after tax of $213.9 million (£173.5m).

• St. James Place employees are made up of about 3,954 financial advisers.

• All financial figures are based on the 2018 annual report. The quarterly report released by the Company in 2019 is not factored in.

Products and Services Offered

• St. James Place provides "wealth management advice, investment management and related services to businesses and individuals across the UK.

• The Company's service segments include "Life business, Unit Trust business, and Distribution business."

• Under the Life business segment, the Company offers pensions, protection and investment products through its life assurance subsidiaries.

• The Unit Trust business segment services are offered through the Company's subsidiaries.

• These subsidiaries include James's Place Unit Trust Group Limited and St. James's Place Investment Administration Limited.

• Through these subsidiaries, the Company offers "unit trust investment products, including Investment Savings Accounts (ISAs).

• The Distribution business segment encompasses the "Company's distribution network for the Company's life and unit trust products. Others are financial products, such as annuities, mortgages, and stakeholder pensions."

Target Audience

• St James Place offers products and services which targets individuals and business owners.

• The Company also targets "UK individuals with between £50,000 and £5 million in investable assets."

Customer Counts

• St. James's Place has over 700,000 clients.

RESEARCH STRATEGY