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Established in 2018, PSIR is privately owned and managed by its shareholders. We provide informed, specialist advice to Financial Adviser firms of all sizes who would like to use an independent external consultant. In 2025 we welcomed Fund Research Centre (formerly The Adviser Centre) an independently minded expert fund research business as an addition to our services.
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Fund Research Centre is an expert fund and investment research service for financial professionals.
Founded by Peter Toogood and Gill Hutchison in 2014 (under the brand of The Adviser Centre), the service supports financial professionals in the selection and monitoring of actively managed funds, with a special focus upon the investor journey and suitability.
In selecting investments for their clients, one of the many choices for those populating portfolios is to decide between passive investments and active investments. Our aim is to assist advisers with this decision by highlighting actively-managed funds that we believe are worthy of the costs being charged to investors – in other words, endorsing funds that we believe offer ‘value for money’.
The ‘value’ of an active fund may be as simple as its success in outperforming the most relevant benchmark over time. Alternatively, it may be that a manager has particular skill in participating in a market whilst reducing potential losses, resulting in attractive risk-adjusted performance. Or, it may be that a manager adds value through a well-managed mix of assets or by providing a reliable source of income. Therefore, a fund’s ‘value for money’ is not only about its costs, but also about the outcome it offers to investors.
Bringing together these considerations, our succinct information helps advisers to focus upon a fund’s most important attributes, supporting their work in identifying appropriate choices for their customers.
We work with the following partners in order to deliver the best service to our clients:
Ian began his investment career at Barings and has worked at a Director and Partner level in sales and marketing for a number of London based asset management firms and boutiques for over twenty five years. He has experience of managing institutional portfolios and knowledge of a wide variety of investments.
He holds the Investment Management Certificate, is qualified through the CII as a Financial Adviser and is also able to manage and advise on private client portfolios.
For over two decades Paul has worked within the Wealth Management industry selecting investments and optimising portfolios. He has worked with private clients, intermediaries and institutional clients. He spent 4 years at Gerard/Barclays Wealth, followed by 16 years with the business that transitioned from Fortis to Investec Wealth. His experience spans the full portfolio construction process – encompassing high-level strategic asset allocation through to diligent selection of collective investment vehicles and direct equities. A key contributor to the investment framework, Paul has served on multiple Investment Committees.
Paul holds a degree in International Finance & Capital Markets and has attained both the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment Diploma and Certificate qualifications.
Peter began his career in 1989 and joined Forsyth Partners in 1994. He was appointed Chief Investment Officer in 2000 and was responsible for the management of traditional and alternative multi-asset funds and was also co-founder of the Forsyth-OBSR Ratings Service, established in 2002. He joined OBSR (later acquired by Morningstar) in 2008 and led the fund advisory business. He co-founded The Adviser Centre with Gill Hutchison in 2014, and the business became part of the Embark Group in 2016. In 2025, the business became independent under the Fund Research Centre brand. Peter is a regular contributor to CNBC and media outlets.
Gill began her career in 1992 at Credit Suisse Private Banking London and managed a discretionary portfolio of funds service before joining MeesPierson Private Banking as a portfolio manager. She joined OBSR in 2003 (later acquired by Morningstar) where she had leadership roles in the research team and headed the investment consultancy business. She co-founded The Adviser Centre with Peter Toogood in 2014, and the business became part of the Embark Group in 2016. In 2025, the business became independent under the Fund Research Centre brand.
Andrew is a director and founder of Alpha Beta Partners. Andrew manages the Alpha Beta Partners business day-to-day and is an active member of the Investment Committee.
He is highly experienced business leader with more than 30 years expertise in distribution and investment proposition development. Andrew’s career includes senior roles such as Business Partner and Head of UK Retail at Sarasin, as well as Head of Strategic Clients and Head of Wholesale at Morley Fund Management (now Aviva Investors).
Andrew has formerly acted as a NED for a London based ACD and for a leading Financial Advice Group.
Alan has almost fifty years’ experience in the investment industry. During that time has managed private client portfolios, Open Ended Investment Companies and has set up an independent collectives investment research company, for which he was CEO. For the last nine years he has headed up the Investment Governance department for a significant UK wealth management company, which saw him have day to day oversight of all the trading in a dozen collective investment schemes. He also served as an independent non-client facing member of the firm’s Investment Committee that oversees approval of all funds to the centralised buy list. Alan is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.
Having started his career as an investment intermediary, before moving on to become head of tax and technical and also head of investment communications at a leading intermediary firm, Paul then headed up communications for the investment solutions team at Fidelity between 2007 and 2009. He established Scopic Research – the UK’s first research agency dedicated solely to multi asset solutions – in the same year. Paul is the architect of the Scopic Multi Asset DNA due diligence platform, which launched in June 2022.