Independent investment expertise, specialist portfolio construction and trusted partnerships for financial advisers.
Our Philosophy
Boutique Advantage & Institutional-Grade
Alternatives
At Edify, our philosophy is rooted in the belief that the preservation of capital is as important as the creation thereof. We achieve
this by moving beyond conventional market thinking and focusing on the agility of boutique managers, the power of alternatives,
and the depth of true partnership.
The Specialist Building Block Approach
We don’t believe in a “one-size-fits-all” strategy. Instead, we utilise a specialist building block
approach to portfolio construction.
Specialist Allocation
We identify best-in-class managers for asset classes and tailored risk allocations.
Optimised Exposure
We treat each asset class as a building block to optimise returns for your profile.
Diversified Alpha
We blend low-cost passive, fee-based active and alternatives for better returns.
The Case for Boutique Fund Managers
We intentionally seek out and partner with boutique fund managers. They offer a structural edge
that large institutions cannot replicate.
Smaller managers are often more nimble, allowing them to add alpha in areas where larger managers simply “become the market” due to their scale.
We invest in decision-makers, not marketing departments. Our boutique focus gives us direct access to Portfolio Managers, allowing us to deeply understand their positioning and market conviction.
Boutique firms typically foster a culture of high alignment, where the investment team’s success is directly tied to investment outcomes.
Boutiques dedicate a higher proportion of their resources to the investment team and outcomes rather than massive marketing budgets.
Institutional-Grade Alternatives for the
Retail Market
Edify is defined by expertise in alternative investments, which sets us apart from traditional DFMs.
- Alternative DNA: While other DFMs may lack a background in alternatives, our entire team has spent their careers in this specialised space and understands it expertly.
- Democratising Alpha: We are committed to bringing institutional-grade alternatives, including hedge funds and private credit, to the retail market.
- Asymmetric Focus: We use alternative strategies to achieve the benefits of asymmetry – capturing market upside while strictly protecting against downside risk.
Boutique Partnership, Bespoke Solutions
and Trusted Stewardship
Our business model mirrors the boutiques we back: we prioritise depth of relationship over breadth of client base.
- Direct Access: Our clients enjoy a direct line to our investment team and decision-makers, ensuring high service levels and rapid response.
- True Bespoke Solutions: We are active problem solvers. We do not offer “white-labeled” versions of generic products; we provide true bespoke solutions and investment consulting tailored to your practice’s unique demands.
- Rigorous Stewardship: We identify, monitor, and analyse risk at every stage of the investment process, providing the professional discipline your practice requires to excel.
Understanding
The Role of a Discretionary
Fund Manager
In the evolving South African investment landscape, a Discretionary Fund Manager (DFM) has moved from being a simple service provider
to a vital “ecosystem partner” for financial planning practices. A DFM is a professional investment entity that manages client portfolios on a
discretionary basis. Unlike traditional models where an adviser must seek client approval for every trade, a DFM holds a Category II license.
This allows them to make and implement investment decisions, such as switching funds or rebalancing assets, across all client portfolios
simultaneously without prior consultation for each individual change.
How a DFM adds value
A DFM provides the “engine” for an adviser’s investment proposition by performing several
highly specialised functions:
They conduct deep qualitative and quantitative due diligence on asset managers, often gaining access to information and people that individual advisers cannot.
They blend active and passive strategies to build diversified model portfolios tailored to specific risk profiles or inflation-plus targets.
Using their Category II mandate, they perform “bulk switching” to ensure all clients are moved at once, eliminating administrative delays and ensuring consistency of outcome.
They make active calls on asset classes (e.g., increasing offshore exposure or moving to cash) based on macroeconomic analysis.
By aggregating billions of Rands in assets, DFMs leverage their scale to negotiate lower fee classes with asset managers, which often offsets the DFM’s own service fee.
Why Should an Adviser Use a DFM?
Partnering with a DFM like Edify offers three distinct “alphas” that strengthen a financial
planning practice:
Practice Alpha (Operational Efficiency)
Advisers are released from the time-consuming tasks of fund research, asset allocation, and signing off on individual switches. This removes a massive administrative burden and mitigates the risk of "platform drag".
Adviser Alpha (Enhanced Client Value)
With the investment "heavy lifting" outsourced, advisers are freed to focus on what matters most: building deeper client relationships, holistic financial planning, and behavioral coaching. Research suggests that managing client emotions and preventing "panic selling" can add significant value to long-term outcomes.
Compliance and De-risking
The DFM carries the legal liability for discretionary investment decisions. They ensure portfolios remain compliant with regulations like Regulation 28 and provide auditable trails for rebalancing, which assists with the practice's overall FAIS compliance obligations.
Edify Partnerships
Why Partner with Edify
Choosing the right Discretionary Fund Manager (DFM) is a strategic decision that transforms your practice
from being a “fund picker” to a “wealth strategist”. Below is a tool to help you assess your current model and a
clear comparison of how Edify elevates your value proposition.
Adviser Self-Assessment: Is your practice
ready for a DFM?
This questionnaire is designed to help you identify if your current investment process is a catalyst for growth
or a bottleneck to your success.
Do you spend more than 30% of your week researching individual funds, attending manager presentations, and performing administrative rebalancing?
When you decide to change a fund in your “house view,” do you have to contact every client individually to get a signed mandate before implementing the switch?
Do clients with the same risk profile have widely different performance results because their portfolios were rebalanced at different times or via different funds?
Are your clients currently invested in “Retail” fee classes when they could be accessing “Institutional” classes through bulk negotiation?
Do you feel you have the internal resources to conduct deep-dive due diligence into complex alternative strategies like hedge funds or global funds?
Are you comfortable carrying the full legal and fiduciary liability for every discretionary investment call made within your client portfolios?
If you answered “Yes, your practice is likely hitting a scalability ceiling that an Edify partnership can unlock.
Edify DFM vs. The Traditional Model
The following table outlines how the Edify model compares to the traditional
Category I “Fund Picker” approach.
| Feature | Traditional (Cat I Adviser) | Edify DFM (Cat II Partner) |
|---|---|---|
| Investment Execution | Adviser must get client consent for every switch; slow and manual. | Discretionary mandate allows for instant, "bulk" rebalancing across all accounts. |
| Asset Manager Fees | Typically "Retail" class (higher cost). | Access to "Institutional" classes via DFM buying power (lower cost). |
| Compliance Liability | Adviser carries full liability for fund selection and asset allocation. | Edify assumes the fiduciary risk for the discretionary investment process. |
| Portfolio Focus | Often "one-size-fits-all" or static fund selection. | Specialised, asymmetric portfolios including alternatives and boutique managers. |
| Reporting & Admin | Static, retrospective, and often manual for the adviser. | Dynamic, branded, and automated; lifts the admin burden from the practice. |
| Adviser Role | "Investment Technician" focused on picking funds. | "Wealth Visionary" focused on holistic planning and client behavior. |
Our Investment Process: A Specialist
Building Block Approach
Edify’s investment process is a disciplined, multi-stage journey designed to navigate market complexity while prioritising
capital preservation alongside wealth creation. We focus on high-quality inputs and repeatable strategies to achieve
superior risk-adjusted returns.
Our priority is to identify the most effective asset class and risk allocation for your specific financial goals.
- Optimisation: We maximise returns based on your risk profile using a combination of historical data and forward-looking metrics.
- Strategic & Tactical Allocation: We define a long-term strategic framework while utilising tactical adjustments to respond to shorter-term market opportunities.
- Alternative Integration: We explicitly consider alternative asset classes, specifically Hedge Funds, to enhance portfolio resilience.
We focus on achieving efficient, risk-controlled exposure through a highly diversified building block approach.
- Style Diversification: We intentionally blend different styles of managers to ensure a robust construction that is not dependent on a specific market environment.
- Market Agnostic: Our process does not attempt to time the markets; instead, it relies on complementary strategies that work across various cycles.
- Passive and Active Blend: We combine low-cost passive tracking with fee-based active selection to optimize the total cost of investing.
- Traditional and Alternative Mix: We blend traditional market assets with alternative strategies to create more robust risk/return profiles.
A core pillar of our edge is selecting top-tier managers to execute our identified strategies.
- Holistic Due Diligence: We utilise a comprehensive, qualitative due diligence process for managers both in South Africa and internationally.
- Beyond Performance: We avoid the pitfall of chasing past performance, focusing instead on a manager’s business structure, team dynamics, investment philosophy, and process consistency.
- Boutique Focus: We intentionally embrace boutique fund managers who are nimble enough to add alpha where larger managers may simply follow the market.
Investment management is an ongoing commitment to oversight and analysis.
- Rigorous Risk Management: Risk is identified, monitored, and analyzed at every stage of the investment process.
- Ongoing Research: We perform continuous manager research and portfolio analysis to ensure alignment with objectives.
- Active Stewardship: Our team implements tactical asset adjustments and provides ongoing reporting to ensure full transparency.