“There is no education like adversity” – Disraeli

The second quarter of 2021 is perhaps best described by the adjective ‘emerging’. For the second time since the advent of the pandemic, in Jersey and many other parts of the world, we have been slowly emerging from life under restrictions and in turn gradually transitioning to a new normal as vaccination protocols gather momentum. At the same time, Enhance is emerging from a statement-making brand refresh that fundamentally repositions our business and differentiates us from more traditional financial services competitors.

In three short months we have switched from full remote working to having almost all staff operating from our office again - a process made far easier this time around by virtue of clearer government guidelines and the technology we invested so heavily into last year. Whilst Enhance will continue to embrace flexible working, we are an innovative SME with a collaborative culture that believes in the sanctity of the office and that there is simply no replacement for in-person interactions. Having the team back together again has undoubtedly improved morale and productivity for the ultimate benefit of our clients.

We have also been busy adding more talent to our staff roster with three new Data Analysts joining our Operations team to help manage the flow of investment data into our Mosaic platform, along with the return of Richard Sayers to Enhance as our Client Services Director. We also look forward to welcoming an Advisory Assistant and Research Analyst to our Advisory team and a Junior Developer to our Operations team in early July and will have multiple Interns buzzing around the office gaining valuable work experience throughout the summer. We continue to evolve fast and are lucky enough to be able to attract great people as part of that journey.

Our brand refresh is the other big story for the quarter, aligning our visual identity with the disruptive, Fintech-led business we have become in recent years. Positively received by clients, prospects and the industry at large, we are grateful to the creative vision and execution of pan-Channel Islands based agency Potting Shed who worked closely with us to design a new ‘shop window’ for our company. The refresh touches every part of our business, from a new company website through to an updated online portal and client report templates. A lot of hard work and investment, but we are very pleased with the results and strategic repositioning the exercise has provided.

Of particular note is the launch of our new consolidated reporting service, CPAR. We have offered consolidated reporting on multiple investment accounts for many years, but the combination of Mosaic and new brand identity provided us with a natural opportunity to materially upgrade our offering and also do so at a very competitive price point. The CPAR, when used in conjunction with our Client Portal, is a powerful tool to help investors understand their aggregate and underlying investment exposures across numerous investment providers as well as compare the overall portfolio and it’s component parts against a variety of independent benchmarks and peer groups.

In the upcoming quarter we expect to launch a range of visual and functionality upgrades to our Client Portal and continue to roll out online access to our existing and onboarding clients. We now have over 100 users of the Client Portal, which is only a small number of the intermediaries we service across the 60+ Trust Companies we contract with around the world. We firmly believe that complimenting the efforts of our talented team with an interactive digital interface is a service model that will provide the optimum outcome for our clients, so we expect the number of Client Portal users to multiply during the remainder of 2021.

It is undoubtedly a challenge to manage and grow a financial services business amidst a global pandemic, but the adversity is something that we hope we have risen above at Enhance. Our ongoing investment programme into talent and technology is somewhat brave in the circumstances, but our team and clients are beginning to receive tangible benefits from this strategy and we believe we are fantastically well positioned to emerge from Lockdown 2.0 stronger than ever and positioned for growth. As restrictions continue to lift, we look forward to getting out into the marketplace and helping more Fiduciaries, Family Offices and Charities with their investment oversight requirements.