WHAT DOES AN INVESTMENT CONSULTANT DO?
Updated: Dec 15, 2025 - The Investment Consultant liaises with existing clients to address technical wealth-management queries while providing clear, understandable explanations of complex financial matters. This role involves collaborating with investment advisers and portfolio managers, managing daily workflows through internal systems, and ensuring accurate, timely preparation of client reports. The Consultant also upholds high service standards by coordinating reporting processes efficiently and ensuring all pension transfer and management reports meet agreed timelines.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Investment Consultant
1. Investment Consultant Accountabilities
- Leadership: Take a lead role in the provision of investment advice to clients.
- Consultant Support: Provide support to lead consultants in the provision of investment advice to clients.
- Strategy Design: Help design innovative investment strategies, including growth portfolio design, liability hedging portfolios, and cash-flow-matching portfolios.
- Client Engagement: Attend client meetings and deliver advice.
- Manager Research: Undertake investment manager research (including a lead role in managing a range of manager relationships).
- Team Collaboration: Attend client meetings with other members of the team and contribute to the delivery of advice.
- Report Management: Take responsibility for drafting or reviewing reports and managing the work undertaken by members of the team.
- Client Relations: Act as a point of contact for a range of clients.
- Team Leadership: Coach and manage the performance of team members.
- Business Development: Support new business activities, including production of tender submissions and pitches.
2. Investment Consultant Job Summary
- Brokerage Execution: Execute brokerage investment strategies in partnership with associates who advise and manage client portfolios.
- Investment Handling: Handle client investments on the brokerage platform, including brokerage and managed account products.
- Market Knowledge: Maintain a strong current knowledge of brokerage practices, investment strategies, and market conditions.
- Recommendation Delivery: Present investment recommendations based on the client's needs, financial goals, and risk tolerance.
- Portfolio Review: Review investments, portfolios, strategies, and goals regularly to ensure effective wealth management.
- Investment Adjustment: Implement changes to clients' investments as market conditions change.
- Client Partnership: Partner with other associates on administering investment-oriented client relationships, managing client communications, and ensuring service responsiveness.
- Service Coordination: Coordinate aspects of service across the team to ensure a satisfactory client experience.
- Regulatory Compliance: Ensure compliance with all applicable banking, investment, and legal regulations and policies.
3. Investment Consultant Responsibilities
- Sales Leadership: Lead and drive the sales performance of frontline sales to achieve the overall sales targets assigned for investment products.
- Sales Strategy: Develop sales strategies and business plans for branches with District Heads and Branch Managers to optimise sales capacity and effectiveness.
- Staff Coaching: Conduct regular coaching, training, and market/product briefings to sales staff to enhance their functional competencies and professionalism in the course of interacting with customers.
- Sales Support: Provide professional support and service to sales staff and customers through joint sales calls and regular portfolio reviews for customers with sales staff.
- Issue Resolution: Assist branches in resolving complex enquiries and complaints.
- Product Feedback: Provide regular and timely feedback to the product task force team on customer acceptability of new investment products, services, and sales issues.
- Security Compliance: Comply with physical and information security standards.
- Fee Calculation: Perform monthly and quarterly fee calculations.
4. Investment Consultant Details
- DB Advisory: Advise colleagues on DB scheme investment strategies by considering each scheme’s sponsor covenant and funding objectives.
- Strategic Guidance: Guide strategic decisions to ensure DB investments remain aligned with long-term sustainability.
- DC Strategy: Provide advice on the investment strategy of DC Master Trusts to support effective member outcomes.
- Regulatory Insight: Offer specialist investment insight for the regulator’s publications, including DB and DC Codes of Practice.
- Guidance Contribution: Contribute expertise to regulatory guidance that shapes expectations for trustees and advisers.
- Content Development: Support the development of content for tools such as the Trustee Toolkit.
- DC Regulation: Assist in regulating DC pension schemes by addressing quality standards and value-for-money assessments.
- Charge Cap Input: Contribute to discussions on charge caps to promote fair and transparent member fees.
- Regulatory Presence: Help elevate the regulator’s presence and credibility within the pension investment community.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Engage with industry stakeholders to strengthen awareness of regulatory objectives and expectations.
5. Investment Consultant Duties
- Proposition Delivery: Work with the Head of Investment Consultancy to design and execute the delivery of the investment proposition, alongside the wider proposition, to the FMT and into the Partnership.
- Market Expertise: Maintain an in-depth knowledge of the investment market and understand how to apply solutions, acting as a go-to resource for investment and market-related matters.
- Meeting Support: Provide face-to-face or digital support for FMT, Partner, and client meetings, group training and development sessions, Location meetings, and client events.
- Content Promotion: Support the communication and promotion of investment content and tools in the Partnership to achieve excellent client outcomes and help Partners become more self-sufficient.
- Relationship Building: Build and nurture relationships across the Investment Division, FMT, and the Partnership to ensure Locations are appropriately supported to reach their targets.
- Activity Management: Record activity data and support delivery across other support functions within the Investment Division, such as mezzanine services.
- Project Delivery: Support the delivery of Divisional and Group projects, initiatives, and campaigns.
- Team Mentorship: Act as a mentor for more junior members of the Consultancy Team and role model the divisional values of teamwork, energy, and openness, along with the wider Group’s culture framework.
6. Senior Investment Consultant Functions
- Client Management: Responsible for all aspects of the management of a portfolio of clients.
- Client Relationships: Build strong relationships with clients and work with trustees or companies to help solve their investment and risk-management challenges.
- Strategy Design: Design innovative investment strategies, including growth portfolio design, liability hedging portfolios, and cash-flow-matching portfolios.
- Advice Delivery: Lead the delivery of advice at client meetings and help clients decide what action to take.
- Quality Assurance: Work within the Investment Consulting team to ensure advice is produced to the highest quality.
- Research Leadership: Lead research teams to undertake research into new consulting ideas and investment manager products to help solve clients' problems.
- Business Support: Support new business activities, including the production of tender submissions and attendance at pitches to articulate the proposition.
- Opportunity Development: Identify and pursue new business opportunities.
- Team Mentorship: Mentor and coach junior team members to develop the skills that help them realise their potential.
7. Investment Consultant Job Description
- Client Liaison: Liaise with existing clients to address technical queries related to their personal wealth management.
- Clear Communication: Provide clear explanations to help clients understand complex financial matters.
- Adviser Collaboration: Collaborate with professional investment advisers to ensure clients receive well-informed guidance.
- Portfolio Support: Work closely with portfolio managers to deliver comprehensive support to each client.
- Schedule Management: Manage daily schedules and activities effectively using internal systems.
- Workflow Monitoring: Monitor workflows to maintain accuracy and organization across client tasks.
- Report Preparation: Oversee the timely preparation of personal investment reports to meet internal service-level expectations.
- Pension Reporting: Ensure clients receive their pension transfer and management reports within agreed timelines.
- Service Coordination: Uphold a high standard of service by coordinating all reporting processes efficiently and professionally.
8. Investment Consultant Overview
- Client Follow-Up: Follow up with clients by phone to confirm the details of completed sales transactions.
- Documentation Accuracy: Ensure all confirmations are clear, accurate, and properly documented.
- Internal Communication: Prepare internal communications that explain product features and updates for Regional Relationship Managers.
- Structured Presentation: Present these communications in a structured format to support their client interactions.
- Product Expertise: Serve as a product expert across capital markets investments, including equities, fixed income, and real estate funds.
- Product Explanation: Provide detailed explanations of product characteristics to strengthen client understanding.
- Portfolio Support: Assist Relationship Managers with comprehensive portfolio reviews.
- Strategy Clarification: Clarify investment strategies and recent product developments during client discussions.
- Insight Delivery: Support client decision-making by delivering clear, timely, and knowledgeable investment insights.
9. Investment Consultant Details and Accountabilities
- Client Understanding: Get a deep understanding of clients’ needs and work closely with local and global experts to bring the best to each client interaction.
- Theory Development: Develop investment theories and present to local and global clients.
- Solution Sourcing: Work with dedicated asset class specialists and researchers across all asset classes, including private and unlisted markets, to find the best solutions for clients.
- ESG Collaboration: Collaborate closely with a market-leading, dedicated sustainable investment team to assist development of ESG policies and investment solutions.
- Global Leverage: Be part of a genuinely global business and leverage resources and scale to meet local needs.
- Mentorship Support: Actively mentor and coach others to support the journey to senior consultant.
- Team Contribution: Contribute to a collaborative, supportive team environment with regular social activities.
- Wellness Participation: Participate in initiatives and make use of financial reimbursements that help manage health and wellness.
- Flexible Working: Use ad hoc and formal flexible working arrangements to support commitments outside of work.
10. Investment Consultant Tasks
- Project Management: Accountable for project management and client management.
- Client Coverage: Cover traditional as well as special situations for one-off projects, as well as nurturing ongoing relationships.
- Client Support: Handle client queries and support senior colleagues on delivery.
- Report Preparation: Prepare client reports and advice with support from senior colleagues, including conducting investment performance analytics, manager reviews, manager selection work, asset-liability modelling, and strategic asset allocation exercises.
- Regulatory Compliance: Deliver advice subject to regulatory requirements.
- Junior Guidance: Guide junior colleagues in carrying out research and analytics as part of forming local views on issues of client interest.
- Quality Assurance: Check work done and ensure accuracy of facts and figures, and uphold quality standards.
- Market Knowledge: Acquire knowledge on capital markets, asset classes, investment products, and investment operations to develop informed points of view and formulate solutions for clients.
- Lead Consulting: Be a lead consultant on smaller and simpler clients, and develop relationships with them at a working level.
11. Investment Consultant Roles
- Lead Consulting: Act as the lead consultant for small clients and the main support to a lead consultant on larger clients.
- Client Understanding: Understand client needs and requirements.
- Advice Formulation: Work with the client team to formulate advice and take responsibility for that advice.
- Independent Work: Work off own initiative on client-specific projects.
- Work Coordination: Coordinate client work and timely delivery to the client or lead consultant for review.
- Routine Advice: Provide routine advice to clients.
- Client Contact: Act as the day-to-day contact for clients of all sizes.
- Meeting Leadership: Prepare meeting materials and lead client meetings.
- Thought Leadership: Make contributions to the thought leadership of the business through research and development.
- Business Growth: Contribute to the growth of the business through marketing and new business efforts.
- Team Contribution: Contribute to the success of the local investment team by helping to drive business performance.
- Risk Compliance: Work in accordance with the risk management framework and comply with internal policies, including participation in the management of risks that may adversely affect the business, interests, or reputation of any Group Company.
12. Investment Consultant Additional Details
- Insurance Advisory: Provide investment advice to insurance company clients on the determination of investment objectives, establishment of investment policy, selection of investment managers, and the monitoring of investments across their various investment pools (e.g., general account, retirement, foundation, etc.).
- Strategy Evaluation: Create and evaluate investment strategies and their impact on client portfolios.
- Portfolio Contribution: Contribute to asset allocation, portfolio construction, and manager implementation idea generation across client portfolios.
- Project Planning: Create project work plans and monitor timelines.
- Requirement Management: Determine clients' requirements and brief the team, providing the direction and guidance required to ensure deadlines and service standards are met.
- Specialist Coordination: Ensure that specialist teams are involved in the provision of advice.
- Report Review: Peer review reports, adding client-specific information, and ensuring client suitability.
- Team Leadership: Direct the work of employees in a project team and coach/mentor others.
- Thought Leadership: Develop and contribute to thought pieces on current investment trends and industry best practices.
- Business Expansion: Support efforts to aggressively market and expand the insurance investment consulting business, as well as broader services.