2024 is poised to be an inflection point for Enhance. I often talk about the progress our business is making in software development, automation and talent acquisition, but there is always a lead time between innovation and the delivery of associated products and service enhancements for clients. Whilst the fiduciaries and families we are lucky enough to serve already benefit from the investment we have made into our Mosaic platform and people, we expect to deliver a step-change in 2024. 

In line with the Elon Musk quote at the header of this business update, we have taken the time to garner feedback and think about what ‘better’ looks like for fiduciary investment oversight. Behind the scenes, we have harnessed these learnings and built a portfolio monitoring architecture that we believe will be game-changing for Trustees. If we get the execution right on our 2024 roadmap, we might just definitively become the leading investment monitoring and advice provider to the fiduciary community.

Highlights of our strategic roadmap include:

1. An upgraded suite of individual, consolidated, and management information investment reports encompassing:
+ Refined algorithm for our proprietary, quantitative Enhance Rating of portfolios.
+ Data Quality Matrix to assess investment counterparties' ability to provide appropriate data.
+ Programmatic Mandate Compliance checks on portfolio return, risk, holdings, and administration.
+ Improved Enhance Benchmark optionality, with an increased number of risk profile intervals to select from.
+ Broader benchmark building capability using Morningstar Indices, Lipper Peer Groups, and Target Returns.
+ An ESG analytics module, delivered in partnership with a specialist independent data provider.

2. A ‘Bookkeeping’ service where we will provide investment transaction data packs and integrations to populate Ledgers.

These are the key deliverables of our roadmap and we firmly commit to launching them before the end of the year. However, this list is not exhaustive and we are already working on our next innovation which we believe will disrupt the investment industry for the better. The underlying theme is data democratisation and transparency, but at this stage I can offer no more clues and must leave you all to posit what our clever people are working very hard on. Feathers will be ruffled and I can't wait to upset the apple cart.

Enhance is increasingly seen as a technology business, however our Mosaic platform serves only to amplify the products and services we offer to fiduciaries as their investment oversight partner. We are a Software-Enabled Service provider (SeS), not a Software as a Service provider (SaaS), and this distinction is important because we purposefully augment our technology with a team of experienced and well qualified investment professionals to deliver our services. No faceless technology company here.

To reinforce this, we have reorganised our front office to create a single Client Services Team that will be responsible for the coordinated delivery of all our services to global fiduciary businesses. Senior hires will follow in the months ahead, underlining our commitment to personalised service delivery, notwithstanding the considerable opportunity that Artificial Intelligence offers us to move away from this approach. Our clients want the benefits of technology coupled with a personal relationship with an investment expert, not access to a call centre or chatbot.

However, it is very exciting to observe our Operations Team embracing technologies like Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Machine Learning (ML) and ChatGPT within Mosaic and our broader operational infrastructure. We adopt an agile approach and so can pivot into new technologies relatively quickly where there is an appreciable benefit in doing so. The application of ChatGPT for investment commentary writing is a great example of a new technology we are already actively embedding into our platform.

I am also very excited about launching our new Advisory proposition in the second half of 2024. This is something I am designing personally with our Head of Advisory, Dr Ruzhen Li, drawing on our combined 30 years' of industry experience as investment advisers. We think we can bridge the gap between investment consulting and management in an efficient, structured and performant manner without compromising our independence or best-of-breed approach. Watch this space in the months ahead.

This year is also important to Enhance as we exit our current institutional investor, Financial Services Opportunities Investment Fund, and welcome new investment for the next cycle of our growth and evolution. In recent months, staff ownership in Enhance has increased to a larger collective majority, which is likely to increase further in our upcoming investment round. This is quite the statement of commitment and intent from staff shareholders, further solidifying our strong owner-managed culture and incentivising loyalty.

I would like to use this note to congratulate our Chairman, Lyndon Trott, on his appointment as Guernsey's Chief Minister for an unprecedented second time. Re-elected as the leader of the island's Policy & Resources Committee shortly before Christmas, Lyndon received 21 votes to secure the same position he held between 2008 and 2012. A decade older and no doubt wiser, we wish Lyndon and the island he serves luck and prosperity during his term in office.

In Chinese culture, 2024 is the Year of the Dragon which is synonymous with natural leadership, confidence and being unafraid to take risks - traits I hope that Enhance embodies in the year ahead as we continue to innovate and evolve. The Dragon is also considered to be the luckiest of the 12 animals, signifying unprecedented opportunity - fortune I hope that you all experience over the next 12 months.

Closing out 2023 and embarking on a new year, I am grateful for the continued support of our business from fiduciaries and families around the world seeking our help to monitor and manage their investments. We exist to serve and look forward to serving more clients in 2024 and beyond.

Thank you all, sincerely.
Tom