So over the past year, we've been meeting lots of advisers across the UK talking about different issues they're facing in their businesses. One of them's definitely been this intergenerational wealth transfer, how to engage your clients, millennials. We've been considering that as well. So looking at that and how we can address this with our investment solutions and thinking about the ETF models that we're bringing to the markets. What do you think these do in terms of addressing that issue?

Well, one of the things we find is that the younger generation that is just starting to inherit wealth and also to be gifted wealth, of course, because of the recent tax changes really accelerated that process, is that they are investors. Good research shows that more than half of them are investing, actually more at this age than previous generations. But of course, they are not investing in any of the sorts of things that we are used to talking about when we're meeting with clients. They're not diversified multi-asset funds. They’re actually investing in cryptocurrencies and they're investing in other exotic asset classes. Now we don't necessarily think that's the right answer for this generation but we do think we have to engage them with interesting investment opportunities that speak to the future of what's going on in the world. They're simply not going to accept dull options. They want investments that address their interests as well as their risk profile. And what you discover when you look at the range of investment opportunities out there is that the explosion of innovation in the ETF market has just produced so many more interesting investment options for this younger generation of investors.

Now that's important for financial advisers for two reasons. Firstly, because it gives them opportunities to start conversations with this generation of investors and hopefully retain some of those assets, get them invested well and in the right risk profile at an early age, but it's actually also important for all the rest of their clients, because for the rest of their clients, the increased diversification opportunities within ETFs actually enable us to build much more resilient portfolios. So all of that has got us to the conclusion that we can't ignore ETFs anymore in model portfolios. The time is now to adopt them.

And then our experience as a discretionary investment manager and running model portfolios on platform, how does that lend itself to ETF models and running ETF model portfolios?

So there can be challenges to running ETF model portfolios. Not all the platforms are as advanced as all of the other platforms in terms of getting the pricing right and all of that. But we've done a huge amount of research on that, and we're going to be launching these models on those platforms that can run ETFs at a very compelling pricing point. And we should remember that ETFs, they bring all sorts of specific advantages. As a discretionary fund manager, you don't have when you're buying funds. The first and most important is complete transparency. We know exactly what is in these exchange traded funds every day that means that when we're making assessments of the liquidity of these vehicles, the risks that are inherent within them, the particular factor exposures they carry, we're doing that exactly right. We're putting that into our data analysis and our risk analysis and getting precise outcomes. When you're dealing with open-ended funds you're reliant on fund management companies to provide you with that information often with a one or two month lag, they don't even always give it to you and so you get some really specific advantages. A discretionary fund manager what you have to do is make sure that the platforms you're operating it on are fit for purpose.

So the world of investment is changing and consumers are changing the way they access investments, so what are we doing about that?

As soon as you start to bring exchange traded funds into the universe of investment opportunities that you're considering as a consumer as a financial adviser or as a discretionary fund manager, a new world appears because you see a whole range of asset classes open up to you that were previously unavailable to you. Asset classes that enable you to do some really important things. Firstly, add commodities exposure to portfolios which every model you build for efficient portfolio management says helps a bit. Thematic investment, that enables you to tackle the opportunities of the future and the innovation and the change that is happening in the world, and also really specific factor exposure which unlocks sources of excess return in stock markets that are just very hard or can be accessed only in very opaque ways if you only use funds. So, we think this new world it doesn't just give interesting compelling investment stories, it also builds more diversified, more resilient portfolios and we would be amiss to leave that untapped.

So are ETFs cost efficient?

Well one of our core convictions is that it should be possible in this day and age to build really cost-efficient multi-asset portfolios without sacrificing the diversification that you need, and what we see with some of the largest very cheap passive multi-asset portfolios they're very simple portfolios. Now there will be periods of time where that works very well and actually we've been in one where that's worked fairly well, but this will not always be the case. There will also be periods where that simplicity loss of all sorts of additional asset classes has actually quite a big impact on the capacity of those portfolios to deliver resilient returns, to stay within those risk profiles that we have explained to clients. And what exchange traded funds do is provide us very, very cost efficient ways to provide access to a wider range of assets without increasing the cost significantly, and also a wider range of innovative and idiosyncratic opportunities which can add performance potential to portfolios. And that brings us to one of our absolute core beliefs, which is that we think the investment philosophy we have at WisdomTree, the research that's been developed over 20 years to understand stock market returns and understand how to build exchange traded funds that access them, it puts us in an almost unique position to deliver really resilient, really diversified portfolios at a pricing point that will not be very dissimilar to some of the cheap pricing points that advisers see around these passive portfolios, but with far far greater depth to what they're able to offer their clients.

And in terms of the way the portfolio is managed and rebalanced, would it be very similar to the existing models?

So the WisdomTree core ETF models that we're launching will have five different risk profiles and they will be rebalanced at least twice a year. We will rebalance them slightly less than some other models because we don't want to incur transaction charges. But additionally, we have very transparent drift monitoring methodologies. We do want these portfolios to stay within tight risk bands. And so if the drift goes beyond 5%, that's, for example, the amount of equity in the portfolio rises by more than 5% at its target weight, that will also trigger a rebalance. So clients can have confidence that the risk profiles are being maintained without undue rebalancing, which could increase costs.

And they will be risk profiled by the major risk profilers.

 So all five of the WisdomTree core ETF models will be risk profiled by the large risk profilers across the market. They're all aligned to the risk profiles that we define here at Albemarle Street Partners, provide innovative proposal tools so you can visualise with your clients the sorts of drawdowns that you get from taking that risk, the sort of estimated returns that you can hope for and illustrate to clients how those portfolios would have behaved in a wide range of market environments.

So from a financial adviser's perspective, which clients are these models most appropriate for?

So the wisdom tree core ETF models are across the risk spectrum. There's five different from cautious to higher risk investors and so they could be suitable for a large number of financial advisers clients. We think they will particularly resonate, with those people who are looking for a very cost-effective investment proposition but one which accesses a very broad range of investment opportunities and with really strong levels of resilience built upon the strategic asset allocation approach that has been developed over many years here.

So why should advisers consider these models? Well, the WisdomTree core ETF models combine our tried and tested approach to active discretionary investment management, a proven approach to strategic asset allocation with all the innovative potential offered by exchange traded funds. And we think that together this creates the opportunity for very cost-efficient portfolios that can access an extraordinary range of new investment opportunities.

OK, so busy few months ahead, going around the country, we've got lots of material coming out very soon. Looking forward to seeing lots of advisers to talk about the models.