Investors have little interest in where their money goes and brokers make most of the running in suggesting where funds should be placed, writes Una McCaffrey.

The most amazing thing about all of this wheeling and dealing is that the very people whose money is at play - the investors - often display little interest in its broader thrust, never mind its intricacies.

"It's fair to say that retail investors have virtually zero awareness of where the money goes," says Mr Pat Woods, investment director (Ireland) with Standard Life.

Mr Woods says that no matter how many marketing brochures or fund commentaries his company chooses to issue, it seems to make little difference to investors in the retail market. Still, the literature must be produced, in an effort "to get the balance between giving people the information and drowning them in it."

On the broker side, a similar picture exists, according to Mr Liam Ferguson of Ferguson and Associates. Mr Ferguson, whose client base tends to have between €10,000 and €100,000 to invest, says that private investors rarely approach him with a very specific idea on where they would like their money to go.

"I tend to find that I'd be the one doing most of the running," he says. "I wouldn't often get somebody coming to me saying, 'I want to invest 65 per cent in European equities'."

The broker has found that clients tend to define their intentions more along risk lines or according to the desired term of their investment.

"There would be a reasonable awareness of the value of diversification, while customers would have different terms for it," he says.

As far as information emanating from investment houses is concerned, Mr Ferguson says that the supply is inconsistent.

"Levels of information vary among companies. There are some companies that have daily updated local websites, where brokers can find out exactly what stocks are contained within the funds, but, at the other end of the scale, you have companies that might send in a quarterly bulletin if you're lucky."