Five years of the Tailored Discretionary Service

When we launched the Tailored Discretionary Service (“Tailored”) five years ago, we did so with a simple observation: the traditional choice between Model Portfolio Services (MPS) and Bespoke Discretionary Management did not reflect the reality advisers were dealing with every day.

There is a cohort of clients whose needs sit squarely between the efficiency of MPS and the deep personalisation of bespoke. And as people live longer, with healthy years not always keeping pace, later‑life planning is becoming increasingly complex. Clients need flexibility built into their income strategies as their requirements change. 

Tailored was created to serve that “missing middle” not as a replacement for MPS or Bespoke, but as the essential third pillar of a complete discretionary proposition answering the needs of clients who require:

• a scalable model-based approach with some flexibility such as CGT harvesting
• tax- and wrapper-aware investment decision-making
• a personalised income withdrawal strategy including management of sequencing risk
• a phased transition from existing investments or cash

Income planning requires specialist oversight 

The past five years have seen retirement income planning become a central focus of regulatory scrutiny, most recently reinforced by the FCA’s thematic review of retirement income. Advisers are seeking structured, repeatable ways to manage sequencing risk, inflation erosion, and variable withdrawal needs, all within a framework that supports consistent governance and suitability.

While advisers can build income strategies themselves, doing so at scale, across different time horizons and cashflow patterns, quickly becomes operationally demanding.

In response to these needs, we launched the Tailored Discretionary Income Service which builds on the successful foundations we’d already established.

It has a three‑part structure: the Short‑Term Liquidity component, the Income Enhancer, and the Long‑Term Growth allocation. This provides a disciplined approach to maintaining appropriate cash buffers on a client-by-client basis, generating natural income, and protecting long‑term purchasing power through our vertical encashment strategy.

This framework enables advisers to manage complex income requirements at scale, while relieving them of the operational burden of running income strategies themselves on a client‑by‑client basis.

Professional support that sits behind the adviser-client relationship

Tailored is designed as an adviser‑led service, with all updates and reporting delivered digitally. Advisers have access to portfolio managers for context, market insight and portfolio rationale, while maintaining full ownership of the client relationship. This model ensures advisers can draw on discretionary expertise without sacrificing the client‑facing elements associated with bespoke.

Looking ahead: the next five years

The evolution of Tailored reflects broader trends in the advice profession:

• rising expectations around personalisation
• increased regulatory clarity on suitability and value
• growing sophistication of client income needs
• increasing demand for scalable, digitally delivered discretionary support

As these trends accelerate, Tailored will continue to serve as the flexible, professional, and governance‑aligned solution at the heart of our adviser proposition.

A final word

Five years in, Tailored is firmly established as a flexible, scalable and structured part of our discretionary proposition one that adapts as client objectives change and fits naturally into the adviser‑led planning process. As regulatory expectations increase and client scenarios grow more varied, our focus remains on delivering a service that provides advisers with structure, flexibility and professional oversight, ensuring the service continues to operate with the clarity and discipline advisers rely on.

Find out more about our Tailored Discretionary Service