Flexible
“Tailor-made” is an overused phrase nowadays. Everything in today's world is tailor-made – running shoes, garbage compactors, financial advisory services – and it probably won't be long before dog food joins the list. There are plenty of providers who promise tailor-made quality while delivering off-the-peg products.
Let's take an example from the financial sector: selecting an investment strategy. When it's time for an investor to choose from various alternatives, he is offered standardised solutions with labels such as Fixed Income, Yield or Balanced, etc.
To "buy" a ready-made investment strategy, all that's needed is a salesman who knows the specifications of the "product" and is able to whet the client's appetite for it. Once the sale is completed, the salesman himself has nothing more to do with the investment. The standardised strategy that has been bought will bring in a handsome income. So it comes as no surprise that the universe of ready-made products is now larger than that of direct investments.
Of course, there are certain situations where the ready-made approach is perfectly appropriate and sensible. But I myself prefer and recommend "tailor-made" solutions when my own money is involved. I identify with the company, and I exercise my shareholder's right to vote on matters that require me to represent my own interests. As a good patriot, I will not allow myself to be deprived of my right to vote as long as I am bearing the risk.
Unlimited flexibility
...or tailor-made asset management and advice, as I understand them, must allow the following preferences and restrictions to be chosen and prioritised freely:
| Subject | Tailor-made | Ready-made |
| Strategy | No name | Definitions of terms: Equity, Growth, Balanced, Long-Short, Absolute Return, Alternative Investment, etc... |
| Equity component | Freely scalable | Specified bandwidth |
| Bond component | Freely scalable | Specified bandwidth |
| Convertible bonds | Freely scalable | Specified bandwidth |
| Foreign currency component | Freely scalable | Specified bandwidth |
| Precious metals component | Freely scalable | Specified bandwidth |
| Commodities | Freely scalable | Specified bandwidth |
| Real estate | Freely scalable | Specified bandwidth |
| Leverage | Freely scalable | Specified bandwidth |
| Restrictions | No problem | Not possible |
| Preferences | No problem | Not possible |