By Ingrid Micallef, Head – Products and Marketing at MeDirect
Article published on the Malta Independent on Sunday
If you are a resident of Malta and decide to search online for discretionary portfolio management services, you’ll find plenty of options, including ones that offer the service from “as low as €500,000.” With MeDirect you just need €100 so there’s one benefit, right from the get-go.
But what is discretionary portfolio management and why is MeDirect’s product MeManaged so accessible when other financial services companies set such high barriers to entry?
A discretionary portfolio management service allows investors to create an actively managed portfolio where day-to-day decisions are handed over to their portfolio manager. Once the investor has established clear financial goals and an investment strategy, the portfolio manager does all the work. As a result, the investor is free to go back to focusing on what matters most to them in their daily lives. It is the requirement of having a portfolio manager who acts on your behalf, based on a direct knowledge of your goals and risk appetite, that has made this service one which until now has only been accessible to high net worth individuals.
How has MeDirect overcome this challenge? MeDirect’s mission is to democratise finance and give customers the tools and information they need to manage their money with confidence and autonomy. As Malta’s first digital bank, we went about trying to find ways in which our discretionary portfolio management service could be digitalised. In this we have been successful and MeManaged is, in fact, a fully digital service. We have designed an intuitive online questionnaire which helps us identify your goals and risk appetite, enabling the execution of an effective investment strategy without the need for an active, in-person relationship between client and portfolio manager.
In addition to making MeManaged a fully digital product, available through our mobile app or internet banking platform, we also took another important decision to help us make the service more accessible but without compromising on quality. That decision was to partner with BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. By pooling assets into different strategies ranging from defensive to aggressive, MeDirect customers have the opportunity, through MeManaged, to have their funds actively managed by an expert portfolio manager at one of the world’s most successful financial services companies.
Finally, the fact that we have developed a digital product and been able to aggregate assets through BlackRock has enabled us to deliver one more advantage for our customers, flexibility. Customers do not need to make any commitments to invest specific amounts, as long as the minimum balance of €100 euro is maintained. Customers are also free to make withdrawals from their MeManaged account whenever they want. Changing investment strategy is also possible by simply retaking the online questionnaire and you can keep up to date with progress through regular reporting and by accessing your portfolio through out app or online banking platform.
Discretionary Portfolio Management is now available to all, thanks to MeDirect’s MeManaged.
For more information visit https://www.medirect.com.mt/invest/discretionary-portfolio-management/
