Best Execution Policy

Overview

The core of our Best Execution Policy is to ensure that all of our clients are treated fairly. This means that the same procedures and safeguards will be in place for all of our clients, irrespective of the type of service that they receive from us.

It is in the interest of our clients and our firm that we obtain the best possible result when placing orders on behalf of our clients. We are required to take all  sufficient steps to provide best execution when carrying out such transactions and, on your request, to provide you with a copy of the policy that we have adopted to achieve that objective.

This best execution policy applies to all clients where we provide a discretionary investment management service or where we arrange for another firm to execute an order e.g. a stockbroker. You should read this policy in conjunction with your discretionary investment management agreement.

Edison currently only utilise third parties (see ‘Use of third parties’ below) to place orders. In the event that Edison Wealth Management changes this, the policy will be reviewed to ensure adherence to the policy outlined below.

Use of third parties

We use third party ‘platform providers’ for the purposes of executing orders on your behalf. These platform providers have their own responsibilities in relation to best execution and client order handling.

In selecting platform providers we assess their best execution policies and undertake periodic monitoring to ensure that platform providers continue to meet the relevant requirements. As part of this monitoring process we require an annual letter from each platform provider confirming they have met their own best execution policies. The following sections cover the best execution requirements we have of the platform providers that we deal with.

Execution factors

When placing orders, we expect platform providers to make every effort to ensure the best possible result for our clients by taking into account all relevant considerations, including:

• Price
• Cost
• Speed
• Likelihood of execution and settlement
• Size
• Nature of the order

For most clients, the price and cost of execution (total consideration) of the order will normally be the most important aspect in obtaining the best possible result. We will therefore assume this is the most important outcome for our clients unless agreed otherwise.

Where there is only one execution venue to place an order, that venue will be used irrespective of the above factors. This is usually the case with orders within a collective investment scheme (i.e. Unit Trust or Open Ended Investment Company (OEICs) where the venue is likely to be direct with the fund manager.

Client specific instructions

If you have given instructions that price is not the most important factor in executing your instructions, we will make every effort to comply with your instructions but cannot guarantee this. This may be due to either the nature of the order, or the type of financial instrument you wish to trade in.

Where we receive client specific instructions on how to deal with an order, it may prevent us or the platform provider from following our/their normal procedures in obtaining the best result which may incur additional charges.

Charges

It is our policy that commission and charging structures will not influence either the selection of execution venues, or the order flow that follows as a result of the execution process. We will therefore not discriminate between the execution venues we use to arrange execution of your orders.

Monitoring and review of our execution policy

We will regularly monitor the effectiveness of our best execution policy and those of the platform providers we use to identify and, where appropriate, correct any deficiencies. This review will be carried out on an annual basis or whenever a material change occurs that affects our or the platform providers’ ability to obtain the best possible result for our clients.

Staff understanding

All relevant staff members are made aware of this policy to highlight and emphasise the importance of best execution.