As part of its plans to focus on the Australian wealth management sector, Oxford Risk has hired Bianca Kent as Head of Client & Strategy, and she will be based in Sydney.

Oxford Risk, which builds software to help wealth managers and other financial services companies assist their clients in making the best financial decisions in the face of complexity, uncertainty, and behavioural biases, has developed proprietary algorithms which rank products, communications, and interventions according to their suitability for each client at a particular time.

In promoting the company to Australian wealth management companies, Bianca will have access to some of the world’s leading behavioural finance and wealth management experts.

Bianca joins Oxford Risk from FE fundinfo, the global fund data and technology leader, where she had a senior role in promoting the company’s award-winning investment & analysis tools, including FE Analytics. Before this, she worked for the leading financial services company Tilney, where she played a leading role in enhancing its financial planning proposition.

Greg B Davies, PhD, Head of Behavioural Finance, Oxford Risk said: “The Australian wealth management industry is undergoing significant change, fuelled by increased reform and regulatory scrutiny. Working in some of the most regulated markets we have developed core expertise in behavioural profiling for more accurate assessment of investors’ investment suitability, financial personality and ESG preferences. We use our deep knowledge of investors to map them to investments that are best suited to them and provide hyper personalized guidance to ensure investors receive the best outcomes.

Bianca Kent as Head of Client & Strategy, Oxford Risk said: “Fuelled by the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, the Australian wealth and asset management sectors are probably experiencing their greatest period of transition since the introduction of superannuation in the country and the financial services reforms of the early 1990s.

“We have considerable experience of working with wealth management companies around the world helping them to address a range of growing challenges from customers to regulators and ensure they thrive in their fast-changing environment, so our proposition is particularly suitable for the Australian wealth management sector.”

Marcus Quierin, CEO, Oxford Risk said: “We are delighted that Bianca has joined our team and will spearhead our push into the Australian wealth management market. We have received many incoming requests from leading businesses in Australia and New Zealand, and with Bianca based in Sydney, we are now looking to dramatically grow our business and serve these valued clients better.”

The Australian wealth management industry is one of the biggest in the world. There are over 19,000 individuals on the country’s financial adviser register, authorised under an Australian financial services licence, and between two and 2.2 million Australians are currently using a financial adviser or have seen one recently. Existing advisers currently oversee around AU$962 billion in funds. (1)

Our behavioural tools assess financial personality and preferences as well as changes in investors’ financial situations and, supplemented with other behavioural information and demographics, builds a comprehensive profile. Oxford Risk’s financial personality tests can measure up to 18 distinct dimensions.

Oxford Risk believes the best investment solution needs to be anchored on stable and accurate measures of risk tolerance. Behavioural profiling then provides an opportunity for investors to learn about their own attitudes, emotions, and biases, helping them prepare for the anxiety that is likely to arise. This should be used to help investors control their emotions, not define the suitable risk of the portfolio itself.