Amber Platform Strategies: Creating and Maintaining a Strategy Financial Adviser Guide
Introduction Amber Platform s term Strategy refers to a collection of assets held in a portfolio, sometimes referred to as a Model Portfolio. Amber s Wrap Platform allows you to create and edit your own strategies, attaching a name and scheduled rebalance date of your choice. Once created, you can apply the strategies to your client s accounts and select for them to be included in the scheduled rebalance. Important things to consider: Prior to creating your strategy we would recommend you consider the following: Available Assets - The Amber Platform offers a wide range of investment assets, however there may be some instances where an asset is not available through our Platform. We would recommend you check our Funds List which will confirm all available assets. Where an asset is not currently available you can request for this o be made available by emailing the asset details to our support team who will investigate this for you. It is also important to consider the Tax Wrapper you wish to invest in and whether selected assets are available in these tax wrappers. Scheduled Rebalance You can chose to apply an automatic rebalance schedule to each strategy. You will then have the option of applying this or a different rebalance instruction to the specific client accounts. You will also have the option to perform an ad hoc rebalance where required, either at individual level or multiple account level. We would recommend, when an automatic rebalance is scheduled on an account, that you consider the date in which this is due to transact before placing subsequent trades or transactions to avoid any conflictions. Cash Levels Amber advise that each strategy should hold a minimum of 2% in cash to cover all Platform charges. It is important to factor this into your target allocation when creating your strategies. Investment Policy Access Level This role is required to enable you to create and edit strategies. You should ensure that a minimum of 2 employees in your company hold this role.
Locating Strategies on the Platform Once you have logged onto the Amber Platform the Strategies function is located under: Administration > Investment Management > Strategies. This is where you will create, edit and maintain all of your strategies on the Amber Platform.
Creating a Strategy To create a new Strategy you should select Create New Strategy from the drop down box and click on Go. A pop up box will open where you will be asked to complete the required details of the Strategy name and status. All fields marked with a red dot are mandatory and require completion. You will be asked to name the Strategy. You can choose for the name to appear the same or differently internally on your firm s system access to how it appears externally to the client. The Status will automatically default to Active which means it will be actively managed and is available for attaching to client accounts and investing new business You will be required to select a Default Schedule for the frequency in which the Strategy will be rebalanced. There are multiple options available from the drop down box.
Once you have entered the Strategy name and Rebalance Schedule you will be required to enter the Target Allocation of the Strategy. To do this click on Enter Target Allocation. A further pop up box will open. You will have the option to select the following for creating your strategy: Asset - allows you to add a fund, share or ETF Currency - allows you to add a cash holding Sub-Strategy allows you to allocate a percentage into one of your existing strategies without the requirement of adding the underlying funds. To create a new Strategy with Assets you should click Go next to the Asset drop down box.
Adding Assets to your Strategy You will be provided with a search function for searching for the assets you wish to add into your strategy. You have two options to search for the Asset: This is the quickest and most accurate method of searching for an asset This is not always the most effective method as fund names can often be abbreviated making them difficult to locate or there can be several funds with similar names. Instrument ID - This will provide multiple options on the drop down menu to search for the asset using an asset identifier e.g. Sedol, ISIN. Description (Name) This will allow for you to search either for an exact match or containing the details you in put. Once you have entered the asset identifier you should click on Search at the bottom of the screen to continue
When you click on search a pop up box will appear with the located asset. If the asset does not provide an option to select it by ticking the box, please contact the Amber Helpdesk to request the asset is added to the Platform You should check the details confirmed and once you are happy it is the correct asset you should tick the box next to the asset and click OK. This will add the asset to the strategy. You will repeat this for each asset you wish to add into the strategy. Amber advise that all strategies must maintain a 2% cash level to cover all Platform and Adviser charges If you wish to add cash to your strategy you should select Currency and click on Go. This will add the currency as an asset along with your selected investment assets. The Lower and Upper Tolerance Levels refer to rebalancing. Sometimesthe rebalance is unable to trade to the exact percentage and setting tolerances will ensure the rebalance can still go through if it is unable to achieve the exact percentage Once you have added all assets into the strategy you will be required to enter the percentage allocation for each asset.
Creating Sub-Strategy You may wish to create a Strategy which is partly made up of an existing Strategy, rather than adding individual assets. You can do so by selecting Sub-Strategy and clicking on Go You can then search for the existing Strategy you wish to make up part of your new Strategy. Once you have selected the relevant strategy you should click OK. This will be added to the new strategy in the same way as the individual assets are. You can then choose to add further assets or a cash allocation to complete the strategy.
Once you have added all assets, target allocations and clicked OK the Strategy details will be confirmed to you to check before submitting. You should check the details and if you wish to proceed in creating the Strategy you should click Submit. Confirmation is returned to advise the submission has been successful and the new Strategy is added to your strategy list. All strategies require approval before they can be made available for new business. The strategy will remain at the Modification Status of Pending Approval until it has been approved.
Important Note: The New Strategy cannot be approved by the same user who created the strategy. It will require a second user to provide approval, these second user must also have the Investment Policy Roles Approving a Strategy Once a new strategy has been submitted it will require approval to allow this to be made active on the Platform and able to accept new business. To approve the strategy you can do so by clicking on Administration > Investment Management > Strategies This will list all Strategies, including those awaiting approval To approve the new strategy you should click on the Activity ID of the relevant strategy. This will present a pop up box which will provide a summary of the created strategy. The approver should click on the Update drop down box which will provide two options: Approved - Selecting this will allow you to confirm the changes and will make the new strategy live Not Approved - Selecting this will reject the new strategy and delete the details. If the approval is required for a modification of an existing strategy it will reject the changes and delete the amendments. Once you have approved or rejected the modifications the Strategy will be updated.
Amending a Strategy You can modify an existing strategy by clicking on Administration > Investment Management > Strategies This will list all of your existing Strategies. You can make changes to the listed strategies by clicking on the Strategy Display Name. This will provide the strategy details in a pop up box. To make changes you should click on Edit. This will open a further pop up box which will allow you to make the relevant changes.
You can alter the Strategy Name, Status and Default Rebalance Schedule from the pop up screen. If you wish to change the investment allocation you can do so by clicking on the Strategy Name under Description. This will open a window displaying the current investment allocation. You can alter the target percentages aligned to each asset or add new assets into the strategy, following the same steps when creating a new strategy. Once you have made the changes you should click OK and then Submit. This will submit the changes for approval.
Copying a Strategy You can copy an existing strategy by clicking on Administration > Investment Management > Strategies This will list all of your existing Strategies. To copy a strategy you should click on the drop down box to select the option to copy. This will provide two options: Copy as Strategy - This will create a new strategy which allows for you to assign it to client accounts. Copy as Sub-Strategy - This will create a new sub-strategy which can be used within strategies but cannot be assigned to a client s account You can search by entering either the whole name or part of the name which will be easily found in the search You will be required to search for the strategy you wish to copy. This will list all strategies containing the search criteria. You should select the relevant strategy and click on Next
The Strategy details will be copied across and will allow you to apply a new Strategy Name and Default Schedule. You can amend the Target Allocation by clicking on Define Strategy Name. Once you have made the modifications you should submit the changes for approval.
Additional Information Audit of Changes The Strategy will store details of the creation date. It will not provide an audit log of modifications made to the strategy. Amber would therefore recommend you record changes to a strategy within your Adviser Firm. If required, Amber can produce a report of Strategy changes. Trading Charges There may be trading charges applied to certain assets. It is important to check the charges relating to the selected assets when creating a strategy. Amber New Business Hub It is important that the created strategies are also created in the Amber New Business Hub to allow for you to produce illustrations and submit new business applications to the selected strategies. It is important that the Strategy names are an exact match on both systems. Inactive Strategies If you wish to delete a strategy you will need to change the status to inactive and all associated clients must be removed from the strategy to enable it to be deleted. Strategy Status The following status can be selected for strategies Active new money can be invested into the strategy and the strategy can be assigned to new accounts Dormant the strategy cannot be assigned to new accounts, however money can continue to be invested where already assigned Inactive the strategy cannot be assigned to new accounts, and monies cannot be invested. Further information regarding rebalancing strategies is available in our Compound Rebalance Guide and Individual Rebalance Trading Guide.
Amber Platform Strategies: Creating and Maintaining a Strategy 03/16 Financial Adviser Guide