MPL Wealth Management, the London-based boutique, has launched a new investment management service which bridges the gap between advisory and discretionary services, Citywire reports.

The new service, which the firm calls “advised discretionary,” allows managers to make day-to-day decisions, while clients are consulted on wider asset allocation decisions, according to the publication.

Simon Stodart, who was recently appointed co-director, is reported to have said that the new service was an attempt to draw on the lessons of recent times and integrate them with a traditional discretionary service.

“We have seen a big migration from advisory to discretionary management in recent years, with huge costs savings on being able to make trades timely. But there were a lot of issues thrown up in 2007/08. A lot of clients are now looking for more information being made available to them and more involvement in decision making,” Mr Stodart was quoted as having said.

“During 2007/08 a lot of discretionary funds made trades that lost money. If we are doing anything unusual now we will go to the client and get their consent.”

One well-noted consequence of the financial crisis - and the massive losses many sustained - is that clients have become much more “hands on” with regards their investments; with the memory of the crisis still raw, many clients are wanting a higher level of consultation on the way their money is run.

“We told clients this [introducing the new service] is what we wanted to do and we had a 100 per cent approval rating. It is the nature of [many] of our clients that they are able to investigate and find things out elsewhere. They can make their own judgements in the cold light of day and judge the results,” Mr Stodart said.