Press Releases
Recent Ascentric press releases can be viewed using the links below.
For further details on any press releases, please contact dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk at the Ascentric press office on 01225 787208.
Showing all press releases
Independent wrap Ascentric announces the launch of the Royal London Property Fund on the platform. Managed by Royal London Asset Management (RLAM), the fund is a Property Authorised Investment Fund (PAIF) and is the only one of its type in the market.
A PAIF is a new type of property fund that aims to make investment in property funds more attractive to a wider range of investors. The PAIF allows taxable and tax exempt investors to participate in the same fund on a tax efficient basis. Any investments in the PAIF will be taxed as though investors are invested in the underlying assets directly. No income will be taxed within the fund.
Available only on Ascentric, the Royal London Property Fund is the first time an existing property fund has been converted to a PAIF since these vehicles were first introduced by the FSA in 2008. RLAM previously ran the Royal London Exempt Property Unit Trust. The fund is now an Open-Ended Investment Company (OEIC) giving it access to a wider range of non-physical property assets including REITs, ETFs and other collective investment vehicles. As the investment objectives remain the same, the fund maintains its existing performance track record.
Susan Spiller, RLAM’s Head of Marketing commented, “The conversion to a PAIF structure has been an important step in the development of our property capabilities. Reaction from existing clients has been very positive and by making the fund available via Ascentric, we expect to see interest from a broader range of investors who will recognise the benefits of the greater investment opportunities which are available through a PAIF.”
“We are delighted to be the first platform to make such an innovative product available to our users” added Richard Goodall, Sales and Marketing Director at Ascentric. “It not only highlights our administrative ability to handle PAIFs but also our desire to ensure Ascentric users have access to the latest fund structures.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Tel 0207 100 3960
Martin Wood
Mobile: 07946 527240, Email: martin@concisepr.com
Liam Jenkins
Mobile 07984 439968, Email: liam@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £39.1 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.4 million customers and employ 2,890 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 June 2010.
Users of the independent wrap Ascentric now have access to Tax Elected Funds (TEF) for the first time following the launch of Querns Income First Fund on the platform. The fund is provided by Querns Asset Managers and is managed by former New Star managers Stephen Whittaker and Phil Roantree.
TEFs were introduced in the 2009 Budget and became effective last September. For holdings in tax efficient wrappers such as an ISA or a SIPP the fund pays out dividends from stocks and interest from bonds gross, so the investor has the same treatment as if the assets were held directly. Prior to the TEF regime, it was only possible to receive gross interest from UK funds that paid interest distributions, although these funds required a minimum 60% invested in fixed interest investments.
Querns Income First Fund has none of these restrictions and is the first TEF to be marketed in the UK. It has no initial charge and a low annual management charge of 0.75%. The fund’s TEF status allows it to produce a high monthly income from a portfolio of UK equities and Sterling corporate bonds without the restrictions on asset allocation that affect traditional funds.
John Tierney, Sales and Marketing Partner at Querns commented, “Ascentric is one of the few platforms able to handle TEFs, and their growing number of high calibre advisers will be able to make the most of the tax advantages that this fund provides.”
Richard Goodall, Sales and Marketing Director at Ascentric stated, “Given the tax efficiency of TEFs, I am surprised that there haven’t been further launches of this kind. We are delighted to offer the first TEF available in the market as it provides further product choice and asset diversity for Ascentric users.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Tel 0207 100 3960
Martin Wood
Mobile: 07946 527240, Email: martin@concisepr.com
Liam Jenkins
Mobile 07984 439968, Email: liam@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £39.1 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.4 million customers and employ 2,890 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 June 2010.
Independent wrap Ascentric today announces the launch of the MC Trustees QROPS (MCT Malta Private Retirement Scheme) on the platform. It is the first QROPS to be launched on a UK wrap platform.
QROPS stands for Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme. It is a pension scheme established outside the UK but which is recognised by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). This recognition means that UK registered pension schemes may be transferred to the QROPS.
The MCT Malta Private Retirement Scheme is principally aimed at customers with UK pension rights who have not been resident in the UK for 5 complete tax years or are intending to permanently relocate out of the United Kingdom. The pension scheme is based in Malta, a member of the EU, and has been approved by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) as well as HMRC. By transferring existing UK pension benefits into the scheme, members are able to legitimately move their pension arrangements from the UK tax regime. This means that, after the five years non residence, any tax would be payable in the country of residence and not in the UK and that certain UK charges on pension transactions will not apply.
MC Trustees is a group of companies that has been administering Small Self Administered Schemes (SSAS) since 1986 and Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPPs) since 1995. They look after 1,500 plans and hold around £1 billion of client assets.
“The launch of the MC Trustees QROPS underlines our commitment to providing advisers with the widest possible product range to meet the differing needs of their clients”, commented Richard Goodall Sales and Marketing Director at Ascentric. “We have had significant demand from advisers for a QROPS to meet the pension needs of their clients working overseas, and I am delighted to be working with such an innovative, forward thinking provider.”
Martin Cadman Managing Director at MC Trustees said, “We are very happy to have made this arrangement with Ascentric. Our view is that more and more assets will be placed on platforms and that they will be particularly valuable for clients who live in different time zones, and wish to review their investments when it suits them. With this arrangement we believe that we will be able to significantly reduce the costs usually associated with managing QROPS investments and pass that benefit on to the client.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Tel 0207 100 3960
Martin Wood
Mobile: 07946 527240, Email: martin@concisepr.com
Liam Jenkins
Mobile 07984 439968, Email: liam@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £39.1 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.4 million customers and employ 2,890 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 June 2010.
Independent wrap Ascentric announces the launch of Somerset Capital Management on the platform.
The $600m Global Emerging Market Equity boutique offers 3 core strategies - Large Cap, Small Cap and Dividend Growth - and has established a significant foothold in the UK adviser and wealth management marketplace, since its launch in 2007. The firm, structured as a partnership to bind in talent for the long term, manages 40-stock, bottom up portfolios for a growing list of clients.
Oliver Crawley, Head of European Marketing, says “Our emphasis on transparency and producing a good value proposition has been well received in the UK market. The Somerset Capital team have a history of innovation with Emerging Markets, having been the first to launch a Global EM Equity Income Fund (yielding c4.2%). The Fund has a 1% AMC, with no initial charge or performance fee, which we believe represents exceptional value. We are really looking forward to building our relationship with Ascentric.”
Commenting on the launch, Richard Goodall, Sales and Marketing Director at Ascentric, said, “The launch of Somerset Capital Management on Ascentric has been driven by adviser demand for access to their funds. Their availability very much reinforces our open architecture approach and reflects the desire of our users to have access to the widest possible fund range.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Tel 0207 100 3960
Martin Wood
Mobile: 07946 527240, Email: martin@concisepr.com
Liam Jenkins
Mobile 07984 439968, Email: liam@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £39.1 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.4 million customers and employ 2,890 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 June 2010.
Independent wrap Ascentric announces the integration of its platform with adviser support services provider True Potential.
The integration provides True Potential users with a daily valuation feed of their Ascentric Wrap client holdings available on the platform. The link up means that True Potential users now have access to up-to-date portfolio valuation information alongside their existing client data when they log in to their back office system.
Richard Goodall, Sales and Marketing Director at Ascentric commented, “This is a great example of how two technologies can combine to provide advisers with a holistic view of their clients. We have a large number of advisers that use True Potential and I am delighted to announce this integration as it will significantly enhance the user experience for both systems.”
Mark Henderson, Senior Partner at True Potential, said, “I am delighted to confirm this link is in place. Our users are now able to instantly see a complete view of their client assets, new and old generation, via their computers and on the move via iPhone and other mobile devices and this link with Ascentric further bolsters the options available to our users and their clients.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Tel 0207 100 3960
Martin Wood
Mobile: 07946 527240, Email: martin@concisepr.com
Liam Jenkins
Mobile 07984 439968, Email: liam@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £39.1 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.4 million customers and employ 2,890 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 June 2010.
Independent wrap platform Ascentric today announces the launch of its unique Key Features Builder Tool for advisers. The tool was developed in association with fund information provider FundsLibrary as a way of demonstrating the holistic platform cost of setting up product wrappers to clients.
The tool aims to complement fund manager KFDs by generating a single document that contains a summary of the risks, aims and performance of the product wrappers and funds selected by the adviser. However, the Key Features Builder tool goes beyond standard illustrations by showing the impact of fund specific charges as well as the costs associated with the transaction on the portfolio growth rates. Specifically, the Key Features Builder covers:
- Adviser Charge
- Fund Manager Charge
- Product Wrapper Charge
- Ascentric Charge
This enables advisers to provide clients with a complete picture of all the charges and the impact these have on their Total Expense Ratio (TER), helping them better understand their personal investment choices.
Advisers can also use the tool to show the charges associated with setting up Model Portfolios on the platform, as well as a wide range of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). Their inclusion highlights the growing popularity for both propositions among advisers using the Ascentric platform.
Richard Goodall, Sales and Marketing Director at Ascentric commented, “RDR is driving transparency within the market, and this tool has been designed to support the adviser in achieving this standard. I expect tools such as the Key Features Builder to become the norm for platform disclosure moving forward.”
Stuart Louden, Managing Director at FundsLibrary said, “FundsLibrary is delighted to be able to offer the Key Features Builder Tool to Ascentric users; the tool will enable advisers to clearly demonstrate the effect of all charges on their clients’ portfolios in a transparent manner. FundsLibrary was built specifically to service the fund information needs of professional advisers and this tool enhances our core tool capability.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Tel 0207 100 3960
Martin Wood
Mobile: 07946 527240, Email: martin@concisepr.com
Liam Jenkins
Mobile 07984 439968, Email: liam@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £39.1 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.4 million customers and employ 2,890 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 March 2010.
Intrinsic Financial Services, one of the UK’s largest and fastest growing adviser firms, has today announced the selection of Investment Funds Direct Limited (IFDL) as the wrap technology to power the future growth of their business. IFDL is the provider of the independent wrap platform which is also marketed under the trading name Ascentric.
Swindon-based Intrinsic Financial Services was established by Lord Leitch, the former CEO of Zurich’s global life business, in late 2005 as a multi-tie adviser network. The company acquired national IFA Network, Mint Financial Services, in February 2008. Today, Intrinsic has over 1650 advisers across the Group, and provides its members with a choice of restricted advice through the original multi-tie offer, or independent advice through their whole of market proposition, all on the same platform and systems.
Critical to the selection of IFDL was the dynamic nature of the in-house technology, which will enable Intrinsic to create a bespoke platform solution that meets the needs of their advisers and clients. This announcement sees Intrinsic Financial Services using open architecture wrap platform technology for the first time, with the Group expected to conduct a pilot during 2010 followed by a full rollout at the start of 2011.
“We are very pleased to be working with IFDL. Their state of the art technology will allow us to develop our own tailored solution that can provide a single standard across the multiple services we offer”, explained George Higginson, Group Marketing Director at Intrinsic Financial Services. He added, ”IFDL’s ability to provide a consistent administrative and client process will allow us to deliver a high quality, platform enabled advisory service well into the future.”
Richard Goodall, Sales and Marketing Director at Ascentric stated, “We are delighted to be working with such a progressive firm as Intrinsic Financial Services. For such a major adviser Group to partner with us is testament to the strength of our proposition and the people working at IFDL, and clearly illustrates our ability to drive sustainable value within their business.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Tel 0207 100 3960
Martin Wood
Mobile: 07946 527240, Email: martin@concisepr.com
Liam Jenkins
Mobile 07984 439968, Email: liam@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £39.1 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.4 million customers and employ 2,890 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 March 2010.
Independent wrap platform Ascentric is running four educational Masterclasses for advisers and paraplanners at the end of June. The events will cover a range of themes, including thematic investing, use of ETFs and property investment, with each aiming to present a range of client solutions to cope with the current market volatility.
The event at Mottram Hall in Prestbury will focus on Thematic Investments where Pictet will examine the benefits of an active approach compared with passive vehicles such as ETFs, and the way in which thematic investments can offer a good hedge against inflation and provide diversification against geopolitical events. Pictet will also look at how investments in agricultural commodities, water, alternative energy and infrastructure can add value and diversity to a client’s portfolio.
At The Belfry in Sutton Coldfield, Marcus Langland Pearce, joint Fund Manager of the Henderson UK Property Unit Trust, will provide a Masterclass on property investment including the options available, the benefits when accessed by collective funds and an update on market conditions. The event will also include an interactive session on fixed income investing, including reasons for issuing and buying, investment pricing, behaviour of sub sectors at different stages of the market cycle, and how asset types are managed inside a fund.
Manooj Mistry, co-founder and head of db x-trackers UK, will run ETF Masterclasses in London and Bristol. The event will look at how advisers can use ETFs to help shape and protect client portfolios in times of high market volatility and uncertainty, while also providing detailed answers to key questions on ETFs.
Introducing the Masterclasses, Dominic Ventham, Ascentric’s Head of Marketing said, “We pride ourselves on providing worthwhile educational Masterclasses for the benefit of advisers and this latest series is yet a further example of Ascentric’s commitment to IFAs. With the backdrop of a hung Parliament, the Greek debt crisis and recent global stock market activity, we believe the range of subjects for these Masterclasses will be of particular interest to Advisers and Paraplanners alike.”
Advisers and Paraplanners wishing to attend or obtain further information about any of the four Masterclasses should contact Ascentric Marketing on 01252 787562 or 0845 600 5360 or visit www.ascentic.co.uk.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Tel 0207 100 3960
Martin Wood
Mobile: 07946 527240, Email: martin@concisepr.com
Liam Jenkins
Mobile 07984 439968, Email: liam@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
1. Masterclass address details:
Prestbury – Thematic Masterclass with Pictet
Monday, 28 June: Mottram Hall, Wilmslow Road, Prestbury, Cheshire SK10 4LG
Sutton Coldfield – Property Masterclass with Henderson Global Investors
Monday, 28 June: The Belfry, Wishaw, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands B76 9PR
London – ETF Masterclass with db x-trackers
Tuesday, 29 June: Winchester House, 1 Great Winchester Street, London EC2N 2DB
Bristol – ETF Masterclass with db x-trackers
Thursday, 1 July: Ashton Court Mansion, Ashton Court, Bristol BS41 9JN
2. Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £39.1 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.4 million customers and employ 2,890 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 March 2010.
Independent wrap platform Ascentric today announces the appointment of Jon Finn as IT Director. Finn is currently Chief Technology Officer at 1st – The Exchange.
Finn, who joins Ascentric on 14th June, will head the IT function and be tasked with spearheading the future design and functionality of the wrap platform. He has worked in the delivery and development of software to the financial services industry for more than 20 years, developing the Officeweb product that was subsequently acquired by Crisp Computing in 2000.
Commenting on his appointment, Finn stated, “I am really excited to be joining a young, dynamic company with such a market-leading proposition. With platforms playing a key role in helping adviser firms move to the new RDR world, I am looking forward to using my experience in driving the Ascentric proposition forward and helping them consolidate their emerging position as the wrap of choice in the adviser market.”
Hugo Thorman, Managing Director of Ascentric added, “We are really pleased to be announcing such a high calibre appointment in Jon. He brings to the company a wealth of knowledge and experience in adviser-facing technology as well as effective IT management, and will ensure the Ascentric Wrap continues to evolve to meet the needs of advisers and their clients”.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Tel 0207 100 3960
Martin Wood
Mobile: 07946 527240, Email: martin@concisepr.com
Liam Jenkins
Mobile 07984 439968, Email: liam@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £39.1 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.4 million customers and employ 2,890 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 March 2010.
The interests of advisers, product providers and clients will become convergent under RDIP and TCF regulation which has not been the case traditionally. In fact they have often been divergent. This is just one observation from the first article ‘The Environment, Customers and Regulation’ of a series of articles on the market written by Ascentric’s Managing Director, Hugo Thorman available on the Ascentric website www.ascentric.co.uk.
Thorman looks at the dramatic changes to the sector over the previous decade, the last few years in particular, and predicts how these changes will extend into the new decade. Four further articles will be published over coming months covering Distribution and Group Business; Investment Solutions; Technology; and Platforms.
Introducing his series of articles, Thorman said, “As an industry we can wait to see how things turn out or we can take a greater role in influencing and driving how we think the industry should look for the long term benefit of all stakeholders. My view is we should be trying harder to reach some consensus on what this vision might be and lead developments which will turn that vision into reality.”
In his first article, Thorman states that the result of divergent interests of industry participants can be seen clearly through the series of scandals which made some clients so cynical that they will never be advised again. However, once an environment has been created which brings about a convergence of interests and importantly a more equal balance of power, then all participants should benefit. The recently published FSA Papers, PS10/6 on RDR and DP 10/2 on Platforms have reconfirmed the direction the industry will have to take.
In time he believes the impact of these regulatory changes will be viewed positively by the majority even though some in the industry have associated regulation with additional cost and a reduced opportunity to make a reasonable profit. Training costs and changing of business models to fully accommodate RDIP and TCF are substantive and in cash flow terms may be life threatening for some advisers. That cost is now an inevitability.
Thorman believes that the job of the financial services industry should be to minimise client RIY for given risk levels through efficient administration and competitive selection processes. This would ensure that higher levels of real long term value are generated for clients as well as ‘UK Plc’.
Other issues covered in the first chapter include the value of the financial services industry to ‘UK plc’ and how some £3.5 trillion of assets are likely to be under threat in their current place of custody.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Tel 0207 100 3960
Martin Wood
Mobile: 07946 527240, Email: martin@concisepr.com
Liam Jenkins
Mobile 07984 439968, Email: liam@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
1. The complete chapter ‘The Environment, Customers and Regulation’ is attached
2. Photograph of Hugo Thorman is attached
3. Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £35.9 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.4 million customers and employ 2,800 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 December 2009.
Ascentric, the independent wrap platform, today announces the appointment of Julia Dobell as a Business Development Manager in the North. The appointment reflects a growing demand for the Ascentric proposition in this region.
Dobell has more than 20 years experience working in the financial services industry. Most recently, she was an IFA Consultant with US insurer The Hartford, having held similar roles with Friends Provident, Norwich Union and Legal & General. Dobell also spent time as an IFA at Rathbones, dealing with high net worth individuals.
Commenting on her appointment, Dobell said “I'm very proud and excited to be joining a forward-thinking, dynamic organisation offering a proposition to advisers that will totally transform their business as well as supporting them in their transition to an RDR world.”
Richard Goodall, Sales & Marketing Director at Ascentric said, “Making quality appointments such as Julia is helping us support our growing number of adviser firms in this region. She has a very strong track record in helping firms transition to new business models and is already proving to be a great asset for us.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £35.9 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.4 million customers and employ 2,800 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 December 2009.
Independent wrap platform Ascentric today announces the launch of a new branding service that will enable advisers to offer a seamless branded experience to clients.
The Ascentric Branding Service provides advisers with two core services: access to Platform Branding and Branded Literature. Platform Branding provides advisers with the opportunity to integrate their brand into the Ascentric platform technology. Once logged into the platform, each and every page carries the adviser firm’s brand, providing an integrated user experience for clients. Platform Branding also extends to outputs such as Valuation Statements and Consolidated Tax Vouchers.
As part of the new service offering, Ascentric has teamed up with The Online Marketing Department (TONMD), a company that specialises in providing bespoke and template marketing materials to firms. Through TONMD, users now have access to a range of Ascentric literature items, each containing variable fields that allow advisers to amend copy and imagery, and apply their colour schemes, all online.
In addition, the service provides the facility for firms to create their own posters, leaflets, brochures, newsletters and corporate stationery online. All materials can be converted to PDF for preview and sign off. Access to printing services is also available, with firms able to print as few as 25 literature items at highly competitive prices.
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing at Ascentric commented, “The demand to own brand the Ascentric platform has been exceptional to date and shows the degree to which advisers are incorporating our technology into their client proposition. This launch is a natural evolution of that proposition and is in direct response to the growing need for a dynamic, cost effective suite of literature that advisers can tailor and use to drive their own marketing activities.”
“We are delighted to support Ascentric in delivering a range of innovative marketing services to their users”, added Mike Johnstone, Director at The Online Marketing Department. “They are a firm clearly trying to support advisers in developing robust client propositions and have developed a unique added value service that sets them apart in the market.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Tel 0207 100 3960
Martin Wood
Mobile: 07946 527240, Email: martin@concisepr.com
Liam Jenkins
Mobile 07984 439968, Email: liam@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £35.9 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.4 million customers and employ 2,800 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 December 2009.
Evercore Pan-Asset has launched their two PanDynamic Funds on independent wrap platform Ascentric. The fund strategies are currently run exclusively as model portfolios on Ascentric, which proved the concept for this launch.
The two OEIC funds, PanDYNAMIC Growth and PanDYNAMIC Balanced, use Evercore Pan-Asset’s asset allocation process that invests mainly in carefully selected ETFs, mirroring the investment approach of their successful PanDynamic Model Portfolios. By investing in low-cost index-tracking ETFs, the PanDynamic Funds aim to keep the overall cost of investing down to just 0.6% per annum for institutional and charity investors. The overall cost for retail investors may be higher.
Evercore Pan-Asset’s Chief Executive, Christopher Aldous commented, “We’re delighted that the new funds are available on Ascentric from launch. The platform’s low costs coupled with the PanDYNAMIC funds’ low TERs should provide a compelling solution for IFAs and their clients.”
Richard Goodall, Sales and Marketing Director at Ascentric stated, “We are very pleased to be offering our users wider access to Evercore Pan-Asset’s funds. The Model Portfolio version of their funds has proven to be extremely popular and their availability now as OEICs should broaden their appeal still further.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Tel 0207 100 3960
Martin Wood
Mobile: 07946 527240, Email: martin@concisepr.com
Liam Jenkins
Mobile 07984 439968, Email: liam@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £35.9 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.4 million customers and employ 2,800 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 December 2009.
North East based national IFA network Moneygate today announces the selection of Independent wrap Ascentric as their chosen wrap platform.
Moneygate currently has more than 5,000 clients who would benefit from an independent wrap platform. The multi-award winning firm currently has 75 RIs and is looking to expand significantly since securing a major investment deal in October 2009. Moneygate is the current front runner to acquire rival network Alpha to Omega and has a number of other acquisitions in the pipeline.
Moneygate had been reviewing the platform market for several months and selected Ascentric following a rigorous due diligence process. Integral to this selection was Ascentric’s independence, integrated fund management, stock broking and cash management solution, which, when combined with its transparent charging structure and multiple product offering, provides the technology necessary to support Moneygate’s plans for growth.
“Ascentric’s independence, innovative features and commitment to ongoing development sets them apart in this market and will act as a key component in our plans for expansion”, explained Dennis Reed, Sales Director of Moneygate Group. He added, “The combination of investment choice, competitive charging and platform functionality offered by Ascentric complements our client proposition perfectly, and will allow us to grow our investment management proposition.”
Richard Goodall, Ascentric’s Sales and Marketing Director, commented, “It’s fantastic to be partnering with such an ambitious and forward thinking firm as Moneygate and I very much look forward to building our relationship with them. The rigorous due diligence process undertaken by Moneygate illustrates the strength of our platform and our ability to drive sustainable value within their business”.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Tel 0207 100 3960
Martin Wood
Mobile: 07946 527240, Email: martin@concisepr.com
Liam Jenkins
Mobile 07984 439968, Email: liam@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Moneygate is a national, multi-award winning firm of Independent Financial Advisers based in Newcastle who visit customers in their home, place of work or through telephone consultation and offer advice on every area of personal finances. They currently have national adviser base of 75 RI’s and are set to expand rapidly over the next three year since securing major investment from a US listed private equity partner in October 2009.
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £35.9 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.4 million customers and employ 2,800 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 December 2009.
Prosperity IFAs and Stockbrokers has selected independent wrap Ascentric as its platform solution to power their whole of market model.
The new firm, established by three former Edward Jones advisers, Jasper de Zoeten, Simon Munday and Mark Newman, are building a whole of market model for their clients, and received authorisation from the FSA last month. Prosperity IFA has selected Ascentric as its sole technology platform partner and will use the service to meet the increasingly diverse needs of its client base.
“The Ascentric wrap platform offers an integrated stockbroking, fund supermarket and cash management facility that lends itself perfectly to the whole of market model we are building,” commented Jasper de Zoeten, Partner at Prosperity IFAs & Stockbrokers. “In addition, their ability to provide a consistent administrative and client process will allow us to move new and existing assets into a single, flexible and cost effective environment.”
Richard Goodall, Sales & Marketing Director at Ascentric added, “It is comforting to know that firms such as Prosperity IFAs & Stockbrokers, who are used to dealing with a wide range of investments, have selected our platform to drive their business forward. I have no doubt that with access to a wide range of product wrappers as well as support services that include the ability to own brand, the Ascentric platform will complement the aims of their whole of market model.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Tel 0207 100 3960
Martin Wood
Mobile: 07946 527240, Email: martin@concisepr.com
Liam Jenkins
Mobile 07984 439968, Email: liam@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £35.9 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.4 million customers and employ 2,800 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 December 2009.
East Anglia and London-based financial planners Price Bailey Private Client has today announced the selection of independent wrap Ascentric as their chosen platform to drive the future growth of their business.
Price Bailey Private Client is the financial planning arm of Price Bailey, a leading firm of business advisers and accountants that has been established for over 70 years. The wealth advisory division currently manages £130 million under advice through its lifestyle planning and investment business model and also provides full tax, planning and audit services.
Critical to the selection of Ascentric was the platform’s unbiased and unrestricted choice of tax wrappers supported by its broad range of investments, including ETFs, Structured Products and Fixed Term deposits which, when combined with their low cost charging structure, will support Price Bailey Private Client’s Advisory model portfolios. The firm’s in-house investment team will use Ascentric’s model portfolio functionality to run passive investments to their clients and deliver best practice and a consistent approach to financial planning, tax advice and wealth management.
Commenting on the announcement, James King, Partner at Price Bailey Private Client, stated “We spent many months considering which platform to use to support our wealth management model. Critical to this selection was the platform’s ability to deliver high service standards both to us and our clients. In selecting the Ascentric wrap platform we believe we have chosen an industry leading solution which will not only fully complement our business model, but also meet our expectations in terms of service excellence.”
Richard Goodall, Ascentric’s Sales and Marketing Director, added “This announcement marks a fantastic start to 2010 for us. Price Bailey is a forward thinking company that has selected our platform to drive their dynamic business model. I fully believe our technology and administration expertise will blend perfectly with the service Price Bailey Private Client offer to their clients.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Tel 0207 100 3960
Martin Wood
Mobile: 07946 527240, Email: martin@concisepr.com
Liam Jenkins
Mobile 07984 439968, Email: liam@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £35.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,800 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 September 2009.
Manchester-based CBG Financial Services has selected independent wrap Ascentric as its preferred platform solution to power its transition to a post-RDR world.
Part of the AIM listed CBG Group, CBG Financial Services has segmented its clients and those who are suitable for the new proposition have in excess of £100 million in assets under influence.
Today’s announcement followed a rigorous due diligence process designed to ensure the selected platform met their core requirements for an independent, flexible and cost effective service compatible with the core themes of RDR.
Ascentric's ability to provide a consistent administrative and client process as well as its integration with leading back office suppliers will enable CBG Financial Services to proactively move new and existing assets into a single, more flexible and cost effective environment.
Steve Rees, Managing Director of CBG Financial Services, feels this is a very positive move for the business commenting, "For sometime, we have been seeking a comprehensive and cost effective platform to support our Wealth Management proposition. It is our view that Ascentric provides the best combination of investment choice, functionality and competitive pricing. Adoption of Ascentric will help drive further efficiencies into our business, linking platform and CRM technology to smooth the transition to a post RDR world."
Richard Goodall, Sales and Marketing Director at Ascentric added, “CBG Financial Services is a growing, dynamic firm of advisers with very high expectations of how technology can be used to power the future growth of their business. Of equal importance was their need to select a platform that adheres to the principles of RDR. I am therefore very pleased that we have been able to prove our value in both of these core areas, and I firmly believe that our platform technology solution will blend perfectly with the service they offer to their clients.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £35.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,800 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 September 2009.
Independent wrap platform Ascentric today announces the launch of the HSBC ETF range to its users. This follows the exclusive October launch on the platform of the HSBC Onshore Investment Bond.
HSBC announced in August that it would enter the ETF market and recently launched the HSBC FTSE 100 ETF and HSBC DowJones EuroStoxx 50 ETF. These funds are now available to Ascentric users and HSBC plans to launch a full and comprehensive suite over the coming months.
Commenting on the launch Richard Goodall, Sales and Marketing Director at Ascentric stated, “The addition of HSBC ETFs increases the choice for intermediaries when managing portfolios and reinforces our unbiased and unrestricted approach. I’m sure the combination of a reputable company, low cost and low wrap charge will be well received by our supporting IFAs and their clients.”
Robert Samuels, Wealth Management Sales spokesperson, HSBC Global Markets, added, “Intermediaries are increasingly recognising that ETFs are an important part of the investment tool kit. With the introduction of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR), investment products such as ETFs are likely to rise further in popularity. By making these available via a market leading wrap platform, intermediaries will have these popular investment tools within easy reach."
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
HSBC
Jenne Mannion, Head of Media Relations, HSBC Global Asset Management
Tel: 0207 024 0444, Mobile 07714 375 439
Email: jenne.mannion@hsbc.com
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £35.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,800 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 September 2009.
Independent wrap Ascentric today announces the launch of a 30 day Notice Account on its platform. The deposit account is provided exclusively for Ascentric users by Investec Private Bank.
The new account will initially be available to SIPP and SSAS investors only and will sit alongside the cash and Fixed Term deposits already on the Ascentric platform.
Features of the 30 Day Notice Account include:
- Minimum balance £25,000, no maximum;
- Minimum withdrawal £5,000;
- Indicative rates range from 1.98% to 2.96% currently depending on balance (gross monthly);
- Charge per investment / withdrawal £20.
Lionel Ross, Pension and Trust Specialist at Investec Private Bank said, “Over the last two years or so many investors have increased the cash allocation of their pension fund to reduce their exposure to volatile equity markets. However, our research shows that most SIPPs are offering poor returns on the cash element of the funds and even those with larger cash balances cannot guarantee a competitive rate of interest.”
He went on to add that, “The Investec Pension and Trust Reserve Account provides some of the most attractive cash rates for SIPP and SSAS bank accounts. We are delighted to make this product available through the Ascentric platform so that they can offer this to their clients”.
Richard Goodall, Sales Director at Ascentric commented, “We have had increasing calls from our users for an accessible deposit account paying competitive rates of interest. The launch of this Investec Notice Account adds greater diversification to our proposition and will mean advisers can offer more cash-based options to their clients. With cash continuing to play an important part within a portfolio solution, we will be launching further cash solutions over the coming months”.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands.
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £35.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,800 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 September 2009.
Independent wrap platform Ascentric today announces the addition of Alan Ferguson to their Business Development team. Alan will provide support for the growing number of IFAs transitioning to the platform in the North and Scotland.
Alan has more than 20 years experience in the financial services market, holding senior sales, marketing and operations roles at AXA, Aegon and Scottish Equitable. In his most recent role, Alan was Sales Operations Director at The Hartford.
Richard Goodall, Sales Director at Ascentric commented, “Alan has a wealth of knowledge in the financial services industry that makes him a great resource for our supporting IFAs”. He added, “I am confident that Alan’s skills and experience will complement the existing Business Development team and add real value to IFAs.”
Commenting on his appointment, Alan said, “I’m thrilled to join such a dynamic and progressive organisation that offers a great solution to users. My priority is to get out and engage with IFAs and help them transition their businesses to an RDR-ready state.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £35.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,800 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 September 2009.
Independent wrap platform Ascentric today announces the addition of Debbie Steer to their Business Development team. Reporting to Sales Director, Richard Goodall, Debbie will engage with IFAs in supporting adoption of the wrap.
Debbie has worked in financial services for more than 13 years in a variety of operational and client facing roles. More recently Debbie was e-Business Product Manager at 1st – The Exchange, where she was responsible for the development and delivery of their e-Business strategy. Debbie joins Ascentric having spent time as a volunteer in South America.
Commenting on her appointment, Steer said, “Having had time out travelling, I was keen to find a challenging role that allowed me to use my business transformation skills in a client facing environment and Ascentric fitted the bill perfectly. They are a progressive company and I am really looking forward to working with them and their IFAs in supporting business change.”
“Debbie has a very strong track record in helping adviser firms transform their business through the use of technology”, commented Richard Goodall, Sales Director at Ascentric. “Her blend of enthusiasm, excellent communication and client facing skills combined with her detailed knowledge of Adviser Office will complement the team.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s UK branch networks.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £35.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,800 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 September 2009.
Funds on the Ascentric Wrap platform have passed £1bn marking a record year for Ascentric with assets under administration rising by 70% since the start of 2009.
Hugo Thorman, Managing Director of Ascentric commented “Passing £1bn of assets on the platform represents a major milestone in the development of the Ascentric Wrap and sets a firm foundation for our continued growth.
“Our supporting IFAs have helped us to shape and refine our proposition and by placing a growing volume of assets onto the platform. The recent signing of high profile clients such as Towergate, Succession and HSBC are a great endorsement of the Ascentric proposition and reflects our investment in staff and technology”.
The Ascentric Wrap platform offers an unbiased and unrestricted choice of investments to clients and advisers. It allows access to over 3,000 funds from over 230 fund managers. The platform provides a general investment account, ISA and in-house SIPP as well as third party providers offering a range of 5 offshore bonds, 2 onshore bonds, 26 SIPPs, 9 SSASs and 1 QROPS.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £33.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,840 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 June 2009.
Succession Advisory Services, the specialist consolidation and capital creation vehicle for IFA firms, today announced its selection of Investment Funds Direct Limited (IFDL) to power its wrap platform solution. IFDL’s market-leading technology and investment administration will underpin the consolidation service that supports Succession’s proposition for IFA businesses, including leading fund houses that form its best of breed investment matrix.
Launched in May, Succession has over £1bn of funds already committed to the platform with an overarching objective to achieve £ 7bn funds under management over five years. Succession helps IFA businesses build sustainable value through re-engineering their businesses, moving to a corporatized, client-driven business strategy allowing for expansion and a capital event.
Succession’ Chief Executive Officer Simon Chamberlain said: “After an extensive evaluation of the global platform market the decision to select IFDL for our wrap strategy was a simple one. Their proven technology and service track record already sets them apart in the fast moving wrap market. In addition, because we have over £1bn committed to the platform already, we required a wrap provider capable of supporting the transition of assets very quickly. I am confident that IFDL can rise to the challenge - both businesses have a strong management team and reputable industry expertise which now provides a winning combination.”
IFDL, the independent wrap platform, will provide Succession with its integrated fund management, stock broking and cash management solution, transparent charging structure and choice of adviser charging models, all of which are vital for IFAs wishing to provide independent, professional, fee-charging post 2012.
Richard Goodall, Sales Director at IFDL, commented: “This deal highlights the strength of our offering, and desire to work in partnership with like minded businesses. The Succession business model and consultancy services are outstanding and fully complementary to the platform solution we can provide them.”
Andrew Smith, Investment Director at Succession, adds: “Wraps are an essential piece of technology for IFAs and allows them to support their clients holistically holding all their assets under one roof. In addition, the transparent nature of IFDL’s wrap means IFAs can offer another benefit to their clients, especially relevant given the changes required post-RDR. We believe we have put together a unique pricing model that will enable our IFA’s to move forward positively under the RDR/CAR changes, and this in turn provides a highly attractive financial planning and investment solution for the end client.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Succession Advisory Services, is an IFA consolidation business, launched on 1st May 2009 by former Thinc CEO Simon Chamberlain with partners Tim Parsons (former Thinc director), Andrew Smith (founder and former CEO of Hambro Fraser Smith) and Paul Morrish (ex Barclays director).
Succession is a specialist wealth management business backed by Committed Capital, an Australian-based private equity investment and management consultant. It will specialise in consolidation and capital creation for IFA firms seeking to future proof their business from the twin challenges of the retail distribution review (RDR) and competitive pressures, while securing exit partners for those practice principals seeking to exit the market.
Additional information about the company can be found on www.successionadvisoryservices.com.
For press enquires please call or email Sandra Paul on 07795 810171 Sandra@lococomms.com or Jane Day on 07795 262865 jane@lococomms.com
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
IFDL offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
Towergate Financial, the financial advisory business of the Towergate Group, today announces that it has selected Investment Funds Direct Limited (IFDL) to power its Wealth Platform, which is a key part of its new private client offering. The platform is scheduled to be rolled-out by the end of 2009 as part of the launch of Towergate Financial’s new Private Client Toolkit.
Towergate Financial has been reviewing the platform market for several months and selected IFDL following a rigorous selection process with significant input from its leading financial planners. Key to IFDL’s selection was its integrated fund management, stock broking and cash management solution, which, when combined with its transparent charging structure and multiple product offering, will provide the seamless support necessary for Towergate Financial to build its business.
Towergate Financial Chief Executive Ian Darby said, “After a comprehensive search for the right partner to power the Towergate Financial Wealth Platform, I am delighted that the experts in our businesses have selected IFDL. I believe the platform will create real added value for our clients, advisers and people”.
Dan Saulter, Business Development Director at Towergate Financial added, “One of our principal considerations in building the Towergate Financial Wealth Platform was to ensure our independence and whole of market credentials were not fettered. IFDL’s multi-tax wrapper and large investment universe ensures that this is the case”.
Richard Goodall, Sales Director at IFDL, commented, “There is no better endorsement for our platform solution than to be working in partnership with a company such as Towergate Financial. The strength of their management team and business model is exemplary and we look forward to helping them achieve their strategic goals.”
ENDS
Media Contacts:
Russell O’Connor
Towergate
Tel: 07760 282586
Investment Funds Direct Limited
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Towergate Financial is the financial advisory business of Towergate Partnership, Europe’s largest independently owned insurance intermediary. The firm has acquired 10 businesses in the past two years and has aggressive plans to develop its business further both organically and through targeted acquisition. Towergate Financial recently announced the launch of a new employee benefits and private client business in London.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
IFDL offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £33.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,840 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 June 2009.
HSBC has launched the HSBC Onshore Investment Bond – Ascentric, exclusively on the independent wrap platform. The launch of the product will provide Ascentric advisers with an innovative open architecture bond together with access to a market-leading technology service.
The nature of this exclusive relationship sees HSBC using Ascentric’s whole of market access to investments and dealing functionality to power their proposition. All assets generated through the Onshore Investment Bond – Ascentric will be held on the platform.
Aimed at clients who want a professionally managed whole of market solution for their investment portfolio, the Onshore Investment Bond – Ascentric offers the following features:
- An innovative combination of open architecture and tax efficiency
- Access to over 2,000 funds from across the market
- Competitive pricing structure with no set up costs and fund rebates credited to the client account
- The provision of multi-life facility where the investment continues until after the death of the last surviving life insured (up to 10 lives)
- Wide range of trust options available, including access to a Discounted Gift Trust to support IHT planning, the only one available on a wrap platform
- Total transparency with all transactions undertaken through a cash account and unbundled charges
The HSBC Onshore Investment Bond – Ascentric provides an effective vehicle for a range of trust, tax and business planning scenarios. Ascentric users will need to register with HSBC via their extranet facility (www.bond.hsbc.co.uk).
Tim Potten, Head of Life Investments, HSBC Insurance, commented, "HSBC is excited to be linking up with Ascentric's market-leading platform. The venture has allowed us to develop a truly dynamic set of products that will enable advisers to offer customers a highly competitive bond with whole of market fund access."
Commenting on the launch, Richard Goodall, Ascentric’s Sales Director said, “The fact that HSBC have chosen us as an exclusive partner to launch their Investment Bond is a great endorsement of our growing business and market standing. The launch of this Bond adds further breadth to our proposition, and means our users can offer their clients a market-leading open architecture Onshore Bond from a global financial institution within our market-leading technology solution.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
HSBC
James Thorpe, Senior Media Relations Manager
Tel: 020 7992 1433
Email: jamesthorpe@hsbc.com
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £33.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,840 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 June 2009.
The HSBC Onshore Investment Bond – Ascentric is provided by HSBC Life (UK) Limited, part of HSBC Insurance.
HSBC Insurance
HSBC Insurance provides policies in over 40 countries and territories to its personal, commercial, corporate, institutional and private banking customers. The diverse needs of its customers worldwide are recognised by HSBC Insurance and it offers products and services to suit them including: life assurance, general insurance, commercial risk and retirement provision. Find out more at www.hsbc.com/insurance
The HSBC Group
HSBC Holdings plc, the parent company of the HSBC Group, is headquartered in London. The Group serves customers worldwide from around 8,500 offices in 86 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. With assets of US$2,422 billion at 30 June 2009, HSBC is one of the world's largest banking and financial services organisations. HSBC is marketed worldwide as 'the world's local bank'.
Ascentric, the independent wrap platform, today announces the appointment of Scott Winters to provide support for the growing number of IFAs transitioning to the platform.
Winters has more than 20 years experience in the financial services industry and has worked in a number of IFA sales roles in the Midlands with major life companies. More recently, Scott was a Pensions and Investment Development Manager with US insurer The Hartford, where he was driving new market developments and helping IFAs with business change.
Reporting to Sales Director, Richard Goodall, Winters will be a Business Development Manager covering the Midlands and the North. The appointment reflects a growing surge in demand for the Ascentric proposition within these regions.
Commenting on his appointment, Winters stated, “Ascentric is a dynamic, forward thinking company with a proposition that is making real inroads into the market. This is a fantastic opportunity for me to help IFAs with their business transition to wrap in readiness for 2012.”
Richard Goodall, Ascentric’s Sales Director said, “Scott is highly experienced and has a strong track record of working with IFAs in helping them transition to new business models. I am confident that Scott will prove to be a great asset for Ascentric as we continue to grow our wrap platform business.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £33.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,840 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 June 2009.
Independent wrap platform Ascentric is running its own series of conferences for the first time that will give advisers the opportunity to hear from well known industry names including Steve Bee about key topics affecting their market.
The Ascentric Conferences will be held in three locations across the UK, Glaziers Hall in London (Monday 16th November), Mercure Holland House Hotel in Bristol (Tuesday 17th November) and De Vere Oulton Hall Hotel in Leeds (Thursday 19th November). The events, which follow its successful Masterclass format, will take place in the afternoon and are open to both Ascentric users and non-users.
Each conference will be split into three sections:
- A debate around asset allocation with fund manager Vanguard supporting the passive approach, Swiss fund manager Pictet the active approach and Evercore Pan Asset offering their views from a discretionary fund management perspective;
- A focus on the technical aspects of the market with HSBC putting forward a case for getting back into the Bond market, Tony Wickenden from Techlink providing a technical overview of the market followed by analysis from Société Générale on the current and future shape of the economy;
- Keynote speaker Steve Bee, Head of Pension Strategy at Scottish Life, will close the conferences. Steve is regarded as one of the most influential names in UK financial services and he will be providing his own inimitable take on the latest set of draft regulations concerning workplace pension reform as well as the broader pensions market.
Commenting ahead of the Ascentric Conference, Steve said "Financial advisers who understand the nature of these important pension reforms and the practical implications they hold for all UK employers will themselves be key to the development of our new pension system in this country from 2012."
Richard Goodall, Sales Director at Ascentric, stated “The Ascentric Conference will give IFAs the opportunity to hear first hand from a number of well known experts about the issues that are shaping the market today. With the speaker line up we have, the conference is already attracting a great response from the IFA community and I would strongly urge those interested to reserve their places quickly.”
Reservations can be made by phoning 01225 787562 or emailing marketing@ascentric.co.uk.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 524808, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
The London event will be held on Monday 16th November 2009 at Glaziers Hall, 9 Montague Close, London Bridge SE1 9DD – registration begins at 12.00.
The Bristol event will be held on Tuesday 17th November 2009 at the Mercure Holland House Hotel, Redcliffe Hill, Bristol, Avon BS1 6SQ – registration begins at 12:00.
The Leeds event will be held on Thursday 19th November 2009 at the De Vere Oulton Hall Hotel, Rothwell Lane, Oulton, Leeds, Yorkshire LS26 8HN – registration begins at 12:00.
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £33.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,840 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 June 2009.
Following the success of previous ETF Masterclasses, independent wrap platform Ascentric is running further Masterclasses, this time in association with db x-trackers, Deutsche Bank’s Exchange Traded Funds platform and Europe’s fastest growing ETF provider.
ETFs are one of the fastest growing investment products of recent times and the impact of the RDR is set to accelerate this growth in the UK. As a result Ascentric and db x-trackers recognise the need for ongoing adviser learning and communication, and these educational Masterclasses will equip attendees with a solid understanding of ETFs and the benefits and practicalities of using them.
Masterclasses will be held at Thorpe Park Hotel in Leeds (23 September) and the Corus Hotel Solihull in Birmingham (24 September), and are open to both Ascentric users and non-users.
Examining the topic ‘why IFAs cannot ignore ETFs any longer’, the Masterclasses will provide an overview of ETFs and examine their increasing use in private client portfolios. The Masterclasses will also take a practical look at how ETFs are constructed, how to use them with active funds to build efficient asset allocation strategies, and how advisers can invest for their clients at the lowest possible cost.
Manooj Mistry, co-founder of db x-trackers and Head of db x-trackers in the UK, will look at how ETFs are opening up new markets and opportunities for advisers and their clients. Commenting ahead of the Masterclasses, he said "This is an exciting opportunity for db x-trackers and Deutsche Bank and we are looking forward to increasing the awareness and understanding of ETFs in the UK IFA market. We hope to demonstrate the versatility of ETFs and how IFAs can use them in their client portfolios."
Richard Goodall, Sales Director at Ascentric, stated “The db x-tracker Masterclasses will give IFAs a greater knowledge and understanding of ETFs and provide a tremendous insight into their growing universe. As our Masterclasses are already attracting a really good response from the IFA community, I would strongly urge those interested to reserve their places quickly.”
Reservations can be made by phoning 08714 236 100 or emailing marketing@ascentric.co.uk.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
The Leeds Masterclass will be held on Wednesday, 23rd September 2009 at Thorpe Park Hotel & Spa, 1150 Century Way, Leeds, LS15 8ZB – registration begins at 09.00am.
The Birmingham Masterclass will be held on Thursday, 24th September 2009 at the Corus Hotel Solihull, Stratford Road, Solihull, B90 4EB – registration begins at 09:00am.
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £33.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,840 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 June 2009.
Independent wrap Ascentric today announces the launch of Société Générale’s Listed Structured Products, becoming the first platform to make exchange traded and free-of-commission products available to fee-based IFAs.
Société Générale’s Listed Structured Products are flexible investment tools for UK investors which can be executed via any stockbroker in the UK. Unlike standard structured products, Société Générale’s Listed Structured Products provide the ability to buy or sell the holding on a daily basis, just like a share. They are quoted on the London Stock Exchange, offering investors greater transparency, ease of trading and liquidity.
As the products are LSE traded, IFAs can simply purchase them via Ascentric in the same way they would an ordinary equity share or ETF.
The Société Générale Listed Structured Products range available on Ascentric includes capital protection, yield enhancement and participation products, offering access to assets such as equities, FX and commodities, as well as sectors that may otherwise be difficult or expensive to trade, such as emerging markets or property.
The yield enhancement products offer soft capital protection and include the FTSE Income Protection Range (LSE Code: SG79 and SG80) launched by Société Générale earlier this year which has recently been extended to offer Capital Gains Tax and ISA eligibility.
The products will complement the extensive range of structured products and ETFs, already on offer via Ascentric’s platform provided by Lyxor, Société Générale’s wholly-owned asset management subsidiary.
Julie Benichou, Sales Director at Société Générale said, “In the structured products world, it is a revolution. Listed structured products are now accessible through any stockbroker and provide all the benefits of a LSE listing. Investors can now track the full lifecycle of a product, from coupon payment to barrier touched, making trading simpler and offering full transparency with daily liquidity.”
Richard Goodall, Sales Director at Ascentric said, “We have seen a significant increase in the volume of Structured Products being traded on the Ascentric platform over the last few months and the launch of these products will only add to that trend. The ability to buy or sell the holding on a daily basis is a great innovation from Société Générale and fits well with the dynamic trading environment we offer through our wrap platform.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Societe Generale
Alexandre Houpert
Head of Sales and Marketing UK
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7762 5423
Email: alexandre.houpert@sgcib.com
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £33.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,840 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 June 2009.
A series of 1st User Groups, sponsored by independent wrap platform Ascentric, revealed that the Retail Distribution Review will enable IFAs to regain real control of their businesses.
The 1st User Groups, which ran in London, Surrey, Bristol and the Midlands, included key IFA firms in the regions and focused on the recent RDR consultation paper and its potential impact on advisory firms. The User Groups also provided guidance on how to build a client service proposition aligned to the principles of the RDR.
The groups felt that RDR will have the positive impact of breaking the link between product and remuneration, tying revenue instead to the provision of service. Product providers are no longer the only mechanism for generating revenue, enabling IFAs to regain control over all elements of the value chain and build embedded value within their business.
RDR means they are free to build a service proposition that fits the needs of their clients and charge a fee that represents value for them and their clients. It is about becoming a genuinely professional service orientated business.
The groups also saw wrap platforms, in particular those offering “unbiased and unrestricted” access, as playing a critical role in helping them transform their businesses. Many felt that there were significant commercial advantages to be had by moving to an RDR business model now rather than waiting a couple of years.
Clinton Askew of Citywide Financial Partners ran the groups and was pleased with the response from those attending. He commented, “The RDR represents a game change for the industry and I wanted to use the groups as an opportunity to help firms gain a commercial advantage by adopting some of the key principles before 2012. I see wrap as a great enabler in this climate and the independent, transparent nature of the Ascentric proposition made them ideal candidates to talk to our members.”
“Ascentric’s clear understanding of the operational challenges facing IFAs, their open support of RDR and their strong experience of Adviser Office from 1st – The Exchange enabled them to add significant value to those discussions.”
Richard Goodall, Sales Director at Ascentric added, “It’s important for advisers to realise that there are technology solutions that can help them in their migration to a new RDR world. Determining how near or far a platform is from being RDR-ready has to be a key factor in any selection process. It was great to be able to deliver positive outcomes for new and existing clients as part of these user groups.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £33.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,840 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 June 2009.
The ability of Independent Financial Advisers to conduct Independent, robust research on a Whole of Market basis is the focus of much attention in CP09/18, the recent RDR Consultative Paper.
Shannon Currie, Managing Director of Independent Edge stated “If Independent Firms use Panels, software or systems provided by Product Providers, they risk jeopardizing their Independent Status.
This should not happen, as Product Provider systems should be actuarially ‘Clean’ and unbiased. However, it turns out that most, if not all, have had their Asset allocation and assumptions ‘adjusted’, for whatever reason.
This means that after December 2012, the only way that any IFA firm can be certain that their systems are ‘RDR Compliant’ is if the system they have decided to use is actuarially clean, and has had absolutely no ‘Product Provider’ input.”
In response to this urgent need, Independent Edge has developed both a Virtual Investment Committee, and a clean asset allocation and risk profiler tool.
Richard Goodall, Sales Director at Ascentric said "As a platform with unbiased and unrestricted market coverage, it's important that advisers also have access to RDR compliant tools to help them make the right decisions for their clients. The addition of Independent Edge is a significant enhancement to the tools we already have on the platform and will undoubtedly prove a big hit with our users."
Shannon Currie commented, “As the new tools from Independent Edge are completely clean and already RDR compliant, we are delighted that Ascentric, as a ‘whole of market’ wrap has chosen our tools to offer it’s IFA users”
‘The Investment Solution’ from Independent Edge is one of the few systems available to IFA’s today that already meets the standard demanded by the FSA in the post RDR world.
It is a web based, actuarially clean, unbiased integrated Risk Profiler and Asset Allocation process. Unlike others on the market, this is based on UK data, rather than data from the USA or Australia. This produces a result that can be discussed with the client in a very interactive way, to fine tune the answers and ensure the client does really understand the process and the implications of the outcomes.
For many Advisers, this will be enough, and they are well capable of then researching and choosing funds to fit the selected Asset Allocation.
For other firms, they will take the view that the slicker and cleaner the process, the better, thus allowing them to focus on their added value, the advice process.
For these firms, the ‘Virtual Investment Committee’, is ideal.
This is an Independent fund Selection process, which provides subscribers with ‘Buy’, ‘Hold’ and ‘Sell’ lists of funds. These lists are assembled by independent Investment specialists, using strict, clear and published Qualitative and Quantative criteria.
They produce their own Fund Factsheets to back up the selection, which can be provided to clients.
This allows a seamless process, which fully meets the FSA post RDR standards, and, importantly, is slick and efficient.
In summary, the products and services offered by Independent Edge are ‘RDR Compliant’ right now, straight out of the box.
For an average IFA firm of 3 or 4 Advisers, the monthly subscription would only be £300 plus VAT for a complete investment solution, (Ascentric users receive a discount) which equates to a saving of something like £3000 per month in Adviser time, if recent surveys are to be believed.
Phil Billingham, Director at Perception Support, said ‘Independence is a critical part of the RDR proposals. Tools such as those developed by Independent Edge help to preserve and enhance an IFA’s Independent status.’
ends
For further information, please contact:
Independent Edge
Shannon Currie, Managing Director
07808 931613
shannon@independentedge.co.uk
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
01225 787208 or 07590 227039
dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Notes to editors
Independent Edge Ltd is a software and investment solution firm that provides Independent, technology based Investment solutions to small and medium IFA’s firms.
The directors are all experienced and qualified IFA professionals. There is no Product Provider or Investment firm ownership or influence at all.
Further information on Independent Edge can be found at our website: www.independentedge.co.uk
West Country IFA firm Old Mill Financial Services has announced its selection of independent wrap platform Ascentric as their chosen Wrap platform. The news follows similar announcements by Master Adviser and Skerritt Consultants over the past few weeks.
Old Mill has over 5,000 clients nationally and in excess of £500 million assets under influence. It is a privately owned company with a range of services, including accountancy, tax consultancy and financial advice.
The selection of Ascentric followed an extensive selection process and sees Old Mill enter the true Wrap platform space for the first time. Old Mill will use Ascentric as its sole technology platform partner to power its financial services business and expects to migrate its clients over to the Wrap service within the next 2 years.
Simon Cole, Managing Partner at Old Mill, commented, “It’s been a real eye opener for us dealing with Ascentric, who from the off instinctively understood our requirements and have fully engaged with us in making those requirements a reality. The dynamism of their technology combined with their strong service proposition makes me very confident that this will be the start of a long-term relationship.”
Richard Goodall, Sales Director at Ascentric said, “To be working with a business with the expertise and professionalism of Old Mill is fantastic news for us and a wholehearted endorsement of our “unbiased and unrestricted” approach. I am very excited about the prospect of working with Old Mill and have no doubt that our platform technology solution will add significant value to the service Old Mill provides to their clients.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £32.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,870 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 March 2009.
The Brighton and Hove-based financial planning firm Skerritt Consultants has announced the selection of independent wrap platform Ascentric to power the future growth of its wealth management business.
A privately owned company, Skerritt Consultants has over 25,000 clients nationally and in excess of £200 million in assets under influence. The firm has recently been on the acquisition trail buying Watkins Oram on the South Coast and London-based firm Huntington Investments Ltd.
The selection of Ascentric for Skerritt’s Wealth Management Service followed an extensive selection process. Skerritt Consultants and Ascentric are now working very closely to build a robust process for migrating assets without compromising their ongoing client servicing.
The wrap's ability to provide a consistent administrative and client process is enabling Skerritt Consultants to proactively move new and existing assets into a single, more flexible and cost effective environment.
Richard Skerritt, Managing Director at Skerritt Consultants, commented, “The people at Ascentric are dynamic and supportive, which, when backed by their market-leading technology, means that we can take our client services to the next level. Their technology service is not only cost effective but intuitive meaning that we can proactively move new and existing assets into a single, flexible environment. The Ascentric platform will be the engine behind our plans for growth.”
Richard Goodall, Sales Director at Ascentric said, “Skerritt Consultants is a growing firm of advisers that has very high expectations of technology, administration and service. We have been able to prove our value in each of these core areas and I firmly believe that our platform technology solution will blend perfectly with the service they offer to their clients.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
· Scottish Life – UK pensions market
· Bright Grey – UK protection market
· Scottish Provident – UK protection market
· Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
· RLAM – fund management
· RLAS – life and pensions administration
· Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £32.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,870 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 March 2009.
Montpelier Pensions Administration Services Limited (MPAS) today announces the selection of the independent wrap platform Ascentric to power its SIPP service.
MPAS recently launched its My Pensions Expert resource service for UK IFAs which provides access to the Montpelier SIPP.
The Montpelier SIPP will have access to the unbiased and unrestricted investment coverage available on the Ascentric wrap platform as well as functionality including online dealing and valuations.
As part of the arrangement, the Montpelier SIPP will be added to the Ascentric wrap platform as a Product Partner, becoming the 24th SIPP partner to sit alongside the existing range of tax wrappers that include 5 SSASs and 6 Offshore Bonds.
Kevin Wells, MD for Montpelier Pension Administration Services stated, “Joining up with Ascentric is an important strategic relationship for us and gives us access to unrivalled technology and investment administration that complements and widens our existing first class servicing expertise”.
Rob Beverley, Strategic Accounts Manager for Ascentric commented, “This relationship has developed from a genuine meeting of minds; both businesses have an absolute focus on technology innovation and servicing expertise to deliver industry leading propositions to the IFA market. Providing two access points to the Montpelier SIPP will meet the needs of different client/adviser relationships and is a model that will prove popular for advisers seeking choice as well as true open architecture”.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
· Scottish Life – UK pensions market
· Bright Grey – UK protection market
· Scottish Provident – UK protection market
· Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
· RLAM – fund management
· RLAS – life and pensions administration
· Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £32.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,870 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 March 2009.
London-based wealth manager Master Adviser IFA Ltd has announced the selection of independent wrap platform Ascentric as their chosen Wrap platform to power the future growth of their business.
Former IFA of the Year Master Adviser has acquired over 3,250 clients, supervising in excess of £115 million of client investment, since 1995. The firm had been reviewing the wrap market for the last 18 months and selected Ascentric following a rigorous selection process. Key to their selection was Ascentric’s “unbiased and unrestricted” investment coverage, which, when combined with their low cost charging structure, will give Master Adviser the option to move to a Discretionary model when appropriate.
Doug Brodie, Managing Director at Master Adviser, commented, “Having examined all major platforms, I’m in no doubt this is the right choice. We need a platform from a firm with the IT and administration needed to develop our clients’ experience, in line with our existing approach and ethos; our research was based on finding a partner who added value to our client offering, not restrictions. Ascentric provide just the solution.”
Richard Goodall, Sales Director at Ascentric said, “Doug and his team have really opened their doors to us. This accessibility allowed us to gain a thorough understanding of their business model and we were quickly able to agree a technology solution to complement their future growth strategy. With Ascentric powering their platform solution I’m confident that Master Adviser will exceed their plans for growth.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
· Scottish Life – UK pensions market
· Bright Grey – UK protection market
· Scottish Provident – UK protection market
· Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
· RLAM – fund management
· RLAS – life and pensions administration
· Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £32.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,870 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 March 2009.
Ascentric, the independent wrap platform, announces its support of the RDR paper today. They believe that the firm line held by the FSA is great news for clients, independent advisers and the industry.
Hugo Thorman, Managing Director of Ascentric commented, “This is great news for independent wrap platforms and totally endorses our approach. In spite of intense lobbying, the FSA have not backed down. They’ve held on to the principle of “unbiased and unrestricted” whole of market advice, adviser charging and transparency.
“More enlightened businesses are already there, but others will now have to adopt this model if they want to prosper in the new world. We know it is painful changing business model but the rewards in terms of quality of income, service to customers and robustness of the new economic model will make it worthwhile.
“The combination of good independent advice together with an “unbiased an unrestricted” platform now has to be the model of choice.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Hugo Thorman, Managing Director
Tel 0207 506 6605, Mobile 07710 877998
Email: hugo.thorman@ascentric.co.uk
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
· Scottish Life – UK pensions market
· Bright Grey – UK protection market
· Scottish Provident – UK protection market
· Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
· RLAM – fund management
· RLAS – life and pensions administration
· Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £32.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,870 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 March 2009.
In response to the growing IFA need for diversified cash solutions, Ascentric, the independent wrap platform, now offers Fixed Term Deposits to the users of its platform.
A Fixed Term Deposit allows clients to gain access to money market rates of interest for a set period of time. Ascentric currently has the Cater Allen Private Bank Term Deposit available on its platform, offering competitive rates of interest on deposits over £50,000 held for a minimum 12-month period. It will also be adding Bank of Ireland and Scottish Widows Bank term deposits to the platform over the next few weeks.
Richard Goodall, Sales Director at Ascentric, commented, “We have received a lot of feedback from IFAs looking for different cash solutions. The launch of the Cater Allen Private Bank product is just one of a number of Term Deposit products that we’ll be launching over the next few weeks. The beauty of these products is that they not only offer high interest rates to clients, but because they act like a fund on our platform we are able to offer full rebates to clients that can be used to offset some or all of the charges incurred.”
The addition of Term Deposits enhances Ascentric’s existing cash proposition. Ascentric deposits on a wholesale basis with up to eight banks (Abbey, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Northern Rock, Nationwide and HBOS) that are all rated ‘A’ (or higher) by ratings agency Standard & Poor’s. This means that clients using the Ascentric platform could have up to £400,000 (8 x £50,000) protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
Goodall added, “Advisers and their clients now have greater choice in terms of what they do with cash on our platform. The combination of choice and security gives us a market-leading cash solution for IFAs.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
· Scottish Life – UK pensions market
· Bright Grey – UK protection market
· Scottish Provident – UK protection market
· Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
· RLAM – fund management
· RLAS – life and pensions administration
· Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £32.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,870 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 March 2009.
Ascentric, the independent wrap platform, has teamed up with Mik Cons, the former managing director and joint founder of 1st Software, to provide an independent business process review to IFA firms.
Through his Silent Partner consultancy practice, Mik will be spending a day with Ascentric clients and prospects to undertake a Technology and Process review. The objective of the review will be to get a clear understanding of the day to day processes that underpin an adviser business and to explore how those firms can achieve efficiencies by aligning Wrap and back office technologies.
Richard Goodall, Sales Director at Ascentric said, “Our aim is to work closely with our advisers to really understand the challenges facing them in their business and to explore how technology can help them spend more time with their clients and maintain a profitable business model. Through his experience with 1st Software, Mik has extensive knowledge of the IFA market and the positive impact technology can have on adviser firms. He is a highly skilled and experienced individual who will provide real insight and clarity of thinking.”
Mik Cons commented, “I really believe the time is right for adviser firms to look at their business processes and embrace technology such as Wrap to help deliver great client service whilst reducing their overall administration costs.” He added, “The impending changes set out in the FSA’s Retail Distribution Implementation Programme mean firms need to plan well for the months ahead and getting the right technology and partners in place will be critical to future success.”
Richard Goodall concluded, “This development represents a great opportunity for those adviser firms involved and I am delighted to be working with Mik to provide this value added service”.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
For information the Silent Partner Consultancy Practice please see www.silentpartner.co.uk.
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
· Scottish Life – UK pensions market
· Bright Grey – UK protection market
· Scottish Provident – UK protection market
· Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
· RLAM – fund management
· RLAS – life and pensions administration
· Fundsdirect/Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £32.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,870 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 March 2009.
Ascentric, the independent wrap platform, and iShares, the world's leading provider of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), have teamed up to offer comprehensive ETF Masterclasses for IFAs, open to both Ascentric users and non-users.
The Masterclasses will be held at The Royal Crescent Hotel in Bath (30 June), The London Capital Club in London (1 July), and Daresbury Park Hotel in Warrington (2 July).
Each Masterclass will provide an overview of ETFs and their increasing use in private client portfolios, explaining how to select the right ETF for the right clients.
Julian Hince, iShares Business Development Officer, will discuss the rapidly increasing demand for ETFs and their worth in the current economic climate. Commenting ahead of the Masterclass, he said: “The ETF industry has grown exponentially and ETFs are fast becoming one of the most popular products on the investment landscape. We are witnessing an increasing level of interest in ETFs from IFAs, and as the market leading provider, iShares can help them become more familiar with the benefits and attributes of ETFs through educational masterclasses and other initiatives.”
Shaun Sandiford, Ascentric’s Head of Sales will also outline how to manage client expectations in the new financial services environment, followed by how to trade ETFs on the Ascentric platform. He said “The Masterclasses will give IFAs a greater knowledge and understanding of ETFs and provide a tremendous insight into their growing universe. As our Masterclasses are already attracting a really good response from the IFA community, I would strongly urge those interested to reserve their places quickly.”
Reservations can be made by phoning 08714 236 100 or emailing marketing@ascentric.co.uk.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
The Bath Masterclass will be held on Tuesday, 30th June at the Montague Room, Royal Crescent Hotel, Bath, BA1 2LR – Registration begins at 08.00am.
The London Masterclass will be held on Wednesday, 1st July 2009 at the Oriental Room, The London Capital Club, 15 Abchurch Lane, London, EC4N – Registration begins at 12:00pm.
The Warrington Masterclass will be held on Thursday 2nd July 2009 at the Daresbury Park Hotel, Warrington, Chesire, WA4 4BB – Registration begins at 08.00am.
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
• Scottish Life – UK pensions market
• Bright Grey – UK protection market
• Scottish Provident – UK protection market
• Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
• RLAM – fund management
• RLAS – life and pensions administration
• Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £32.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,870 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 March 2009.
Ascentric, the independent wrap platform, is running three User Forums next week in Manchester (9 June), London (10 June) and Bath (11 June) for IFAs using its platform.
The purpose of these events is to provide platform users with updates surrounding key technology, product and service developments but is also used by Ascentric as a way of obtaining valuable user feedback. Each User Forum will be chaired by an IFA with Hugo Thorman, Ascentric’s Managing Director, also on hand to answer questions on future development plans.
Dominic Ventham, Ascentric’s Head of Marketing said, “Over recent years, technology in general has progressed at a rapid pace changing the way IFAs operate on a day to day basis. Our platform has also moved on at the same rapid pace and it is important our users are fully up to date with all the new products and services we have introduced recently as well as those we will be launching over the next few months. The IFA is our highest priority and we really value their feedback.”
The User Forums start at 09:30 and end at 14:00.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
• Scottish Life – UK pensions market
• Bright Grey – UK protection market
• Scottish Provident – UK protection market
• Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
• RLAM – fund management
• RLAS – life and pensions administration
• Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £32.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,870 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 March 2009.
Ascentric, the independent wrap platform, announce the appointment of Mark Davidson, Rebecca Robinson and Enzo Sanfelice as Business Development Managers (BDMs) to further market the Ascentric proposition to IFAs. The trio will report in to Sales Director, Richard Goodall, to help deliver his growth strategy.
Mark Davidson has spent 20 years in financial services as an IFA and more recently as Strategic Account Manager for 1st – The Exchange. He will be working closely with users of Adviser Office to help them shape their clients propositions and realise the benefits of combining CRM with an unbiased technology Wrap.
Rebecca Robinson will be responsible for developing Ascentric’s Strategic Accounts and Partnerships nationally. She was previously at Fidelity for 6 years, working principally as a Key Accounts Sales Manager for FundsNetwork.
Enzo Sanfelice has been with Canada Life for 8 years promoting their Wealth Management proposition to IFAs as an Account Manager and more recently as Regional Sales Manager. Enzo will be responsible for the South West region.
Richard Goodall, Ascentric’s Sales Director said, “Mark, Rebecca and Enzo are all highly experienced individuals who have a strong track record of working with IFAs to review their businesses and deploying technology as part of a new business model. I am confident they will each prove to be great assets for Ascentric as we continue to grow our wrap platform business.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
· Scottish Life – UK pensions market
· Bright Grey – UK protection market
· Scottish Provident – UK protection market
· Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
· RLAM – fund management
· RLAS – life and pensions administration
· Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £32.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,870 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 March 2009.
Ascentric, the independent wrap platform, has launched the ‘Ascentric Pension Account’ (APA), a simple, low cost SIPP that provides IFA clients with the opportunity to consolidate their holdings into a single product offering flexibility, choice and transparency together with the ability to view and monitor performance online.
The APA is a direct result of IFA requests for such a product and will complement the 20 SIPPs already available on the Ascentric Wrap platform through its product partners.
The new plan is designed for IFA clients wanting to use the Ascentric Wrap, but not requiring the complexity or expense of a full SIPP. It is also for those who want to save for retirement within a tax efficient environment and for those over 50 (55 from 6 April 2010) who wish to take retirement income from all or part of their pension fund immediately.
Clients can transfer existing plans to the APA from any UK registered pension scheme, including Protected Rights and/or contracted out benefits, making it appropriate for clients looking to consolidate their pension plans.
Through the Ascentric Wrap, the APA offers an unparalleled range of investments allowing IFAs to tailor the product to the risk profile and retirement needs of their clients. This includes access to around 3,000 Unit Trust and OEICs as well as Specialist Funds, Managed Funds, Investment Trusts, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), Bonds, direct share holdings and cash where approved by HMRC for SIPP investment. The APA does not support the holding of property, unlisted shares or personal belongings (such as art, wine or antiques) as part of the investment portfolio.
Commenting on the launch of the APA, Hugo Thorman, Ascentric’s Managing Director said, “We continually listen to IFA users of our Wrap platform to determine how Ascentric can best meet their needs through the products and services we offer. The APA offers the best of both worlds: a market-leading wrap platform with a simple, low cost SIPP. Sitting alongside our other product partners, IFAs now have more freedom to decide which product is most appropriate for their individual clients.”
As well as the standard tax benefits provided by pension schemes, the APA also offers a number of income options including the ability to take income from the pension without buying an annuity (Unsecured Pension and Alternatively Secured Pension), taking benefits in stages (Phased Retirement), and flexibility for dependents following death.
In keeping with the Ascentric wrap proposition, charges are totally transparent and low at £150 set up charge, £150 per annum administration charge, in addition to the normal Ascentric dealing costs. Ascentric are also waiving the pension transfer charge (£50) for a 6 month period from launch.
Thorman concluded, “Simplicity is the key with this product and we expect it to be well received by IFAs.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Please click on the links below to access more information on the APA:
APA Adviser brochure
Ascentric Charges document
The APA is the marketing name for the Investment Funds Direct SIPP, which is a regulated pension scheme under the Finance Act 2004.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
· Scottish Life – UK pensions market
· Bright Grey – UK protection market
· Scottish Provident – UK protection market
· Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
· RLAM – fund management
· RLAS – life and pensions administration
· Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £35.0 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,890 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 December 2008
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
After an extensive assessment process the Chartwell Group, one of the UK’s most respected and well known IFA firms, has today announced the selection of Fundsdirect as the wrap provider to power their new Investor Centre platform. Fundsdirect is the provider of the independent, whole of market wrap platform marketed under the trading name Ascentric.
Based in Bath, Chartwell has over 35,000 clients nationally and over £2 billion assets under agency. It is a privately owned company with a range of operating businesses, including Chartwell Private Client and Chartwell Direct. In 2008, Chartwell won the Money Marketing Financial Services Award for Best Investment Adviser.
The selection of Fundsdirect (Ascentric) sees Chartwell enter the wrap platform market for the first time. Chartwell will use Fundsdirect’s wrap platform to power and launch its “Investor Centre” proposition to serve both its Advisory and Direct investment broking businesses. Chartwell expects to migrate most of its clients over to the respective platforms within the next 3-5 years.
Director Rob Hudson at Chartwell Group said, “As this is such a significant outsource of administration, custody, deal execution and product/pricing options we have had to be careful to partner with a provider that can help us deliver on all fronts. Fundsdirect’s core capability meets this challenge and will allow us to deliver a high quality platform enabled advisory and direct services moving forward. We are delighted to be working with such an excellent team.”
Hugo Thorman, Managing Director at Fundsdirect (Ascentric) said, “This is a wholehearted endorsement of the flexibility of our proposition, market-leading technology and “can do” approach to the provision of platform services. We will work closely with Chartwell, as we do with all our corporate clients, to deliver holistic financial planning services in a cost effective, yet transparent way.”
Ascentric, the independent wrap platform, stresses the importance of IFAs undertaking regular due diligence on the platforms they use to make sure they remain suitable for clients and fit for purpose.
Shaun Sandiford, Ascentric’s Head of Sales said, “You only need to look back over the past year to see the degree of change that has impacted our regulatory landscape and the platform world. With all the pressures involved in running a business and keeping clients happy, IFAs have to devote more and more time ensuring that the appropriate governance is in place to justify any major decision they make. This includes their selection of a wrap platform provider.”
Back in January 2008 the FSA lexicon for wraps was defined by the need to be ‘whole of market’ but by the end of last year the language had changed and become more defined. The expression ‘unbiased and unrestricted’ was introduced through the Retail Distribution Review.
From a wrap perspective this phrase represents the need for IFAs to provide clients with a freedom of choice in terms of access to products as well as the freedom to transfer assets on and off platform. This freedom underpins the ultimate desire on the part of the FSA to ensure that product recommendations are based on a full understanding of the market.
“The upshot of this change means a wrap that was suitable in January 2008, when it needed to be whole of market, may no longer meet the demands of an ‘unbiased and unrestricted’ world, especially for IFAs wishing to position themselves as truly independent advisers”, added Sandiford.
Sandiford says financial advisers should be asking themselves some key questions regarding their chosen wrap platform. For example:
• Has your firm’s investment philosophy changed in 2009? If so, is your existing platform able to provide the breadth of investment coverage that best reflects that change?
• What about protected rights and ongoing protected rights planning? If the SIPP available on your wrap does not allow protected rights, will you be able to provide your clients with effective financial planning?
• What gaps in functionality does your platform currently have and are these likely to change in the future? Does the current functionality fit with the concept of ‘unbiased and unrestricted’?
• If you decide to change your business model to meet the requirements of an ‘unbiased and unrestricted’ world, will your platform put barriers in your way and limit what you can transfer off platform?
Sandiford concluded, “Why wait for regulatory sanctions when you can do something about it now? Spring clean your wrap operator, spring clean your preferred platform, and, if you feel it remains fit for purpose, fine, document why and carry on. If it’s not, investigate others, do your due diligence and make the move to an ‘unbiased and unrestricted’ world.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Photograph of Shaun Sandiford is attached
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
• Scottish Life – UK pensions market
• Bright Grey – UK protection market
• Scottish Provident – UK protection market
• Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
• RLAM – fund management
• RLAS – life and pensions administration
• Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Abbey’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £35.0 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,890 people. Figures quoted are as at 31 December 2008
The WAY IHT plans on Ascentric Platform represent a ‘ground breaking’ innovation within Inheritance Tax planning. The elusive Holy Grail within IHT planning has always been to produce a mitigation arrangement which fits over a standalone investment portfolio in a similar way to an ISA wrapper. Now it is here at last. For years we have been limited to accessing open architecture from within offshore insurance funds. Whilst highly creative and largely effective, most of the clients involved would not have chosen such a medium had they simply been investing on their own account.
This has become even more the case since CGT has moved to a flat 18% on any gain after annual allowances. Why would anyone volunteer to be within an Income Tax environment at up to 40% (possibly 45% soon when the new higher rate comes into force) when they can cap any gains tax at 18%?
So the Holy Grail has arrived. All three of the IHT plans offered on the Ascentric investment platform by WAY Group excel in offering almost unlimited flexibility to the taxpayer in terms of accessibility to all family members. These plans are simply an added strategy which can be overlaid on a managed portfolio of collective funds and/or ETFs. At a small marginal extra cost of some 1% or so per year there is no reason for wealthy investors not to add this wonderful IHT benefit to their everyday investment portfolios.
I have been working in the field of family wealth protection for nearly 40 years (too long by half) and have seen inheritance solutions become increasingly more creative. This has happened as both legislation and HMRC practices have become ever more targeted at the avoidance of the various versions of death taxes. Tax planners have therefore become fairly fleet of foot, designing products which are very specifically geared towards IHT. As a result such plans have always been viewed as complicated financial products involving restricted access and somewhat unfortunate peripheral tax consequences.
This is no longer the case. Now investors can simply add a very straightforward WAY trust around their chosen managed portfolio and progressively mitigate the debilitating effects of Inheritance Tax. All three trusts offer unprecedented levels of flexibility going forwards to cater for the financial and taxation vagaries of life.
Nick Chadwick TEP
Tax Planner
Nick Chadwick, of Unitech Associates, is a leading player in the field of IHT structures and an architect of many of the schemes that exist in the market. Over the years he has developed IHT trust structures for many firms including Canada Life, Scottish Mutual and Isle of Man Assurance. He comments here on the new WAY IHT Plans that have been developed from his original designs to provide direct access to open architecture portfolios on the Ascentric Wrap platform.
IFAs can now access 2,944 funds from 231 fund managers following the addition of 644 funds since the start of the year. These fund additions reinforce Ascentric’s position as the platform of choice for advisers seeking a whole of market approach for their clients.
Over the past two weeks, Ascentric has added the complete range of 30 JP Morgan offshore Luxembourg funds, the complete range of 16 offshore Franklin Templeton funds, and the complete range of 57 Deutsche Bank exchange traded funds. They are also in negotiation with a number of fund managers to bring on new fund ranges and new products.
In addition to the extensive number of funds and structured products available, users of the Ascentric platform also have access to a wide range of securities provided by the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and other stock exchanges, including any UK and US ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds), Investment Trusts, Venture Capital Trusts, Bonds, Gilts and collectives with non correlating asset classes, such as fine wine, timber and hotels. Ascentric also accommodates all dealing frequencies with regards to the trading of funds to sit within a client’s portfolio.
Richard Goodall, Sales Director at Ascentric said, “We pride ourselves on our unbiased and unrestricted approach, and in helping IFAs deliver holistic financial planning services cost effectively.
“The addition of these funds is in direct response to the feedback we’ve received from Ascentric platform users, who have stated that they want access to the widest possible choice of investments including the ability to invest in some niche areas that support the core and satellite investment approach. No other Wrap can offer IFAs the breadth and depth of investments available through the Ascentric platform.
We will continue to work with IFAs to ensure our platform provides them with the breadth of investments required to meet the diverse needs of their clients.”
Ascentric, the independent wrap platform, today announces the appointment of Richard Goodall as Sales Director. He will be tasked with driving Ascentric’s growth strategy in 2009 and maximizing the opportunities that exist for firms seeking unbiased and unrestricted market coverage from their wrap platforms.
Prior to joining Ascentric, Richard was Sales and Marketing Director of 1st Software and a Director of 1st -The Exchange, and has also held senior roles in IFA and Product Provider firms. Richard said, “The opportunity to join Ascentric, who are a young, dynamic organisation with a fantastic proposition, is very exciting. Wrap is increasingly becoming a key strategic area for IFAs and I look forward to working with our Business Development Team to help IFAs move to the new advice model”.
Hugo Thorman, Managing Director of Ascentric said, “We are very pleased to welcome Richard. His appointment completes our Board structure and supports the recent appointment of Shaun Sandiford as Head of Sales. Richard’s background in driving sales performance, combined with his knowledge of the market and IFA back office administration, will be extremely important in leading Ascentric to become the wrap of choice to the IFA market.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email:
dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email:
martin@concisepr.com
Notes to Editors
Photograph of Richard Goodall is available contact Dominic Ventham as above
Ascentric’s Executive Directors are as follows:
· Hugo Thorman, Managing Director
· Richard Goodall, Sales Director
· David Harvey, IT Director
· Mark Hastings, Finance Director
· David Hudd, Operations Director
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either
www.ascentric.co.uk or
www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
Scottish Life – UK pensions market
Bright Grey – UK protection market
Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
· Scottish Provident – UK protection market
· Phoenix Life Assurance Limited – provides life and pensions products to Abbey’s national branch network
RLAM – fund management
RLAS – life and pensions administration
Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £34.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.5 million customers and employ 2,900 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 September 2008.
IFAs now able to access 30 Lyxor ETFs
Lyxor Asset Management (Lyxor), Société Générale’s wholly-owned subsidiary and European leader in Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), has made its entire UK range of ETFs available to IFAs via Ascentric, the whole of market wrap platform.
Lyxor sees IFAs becoming an ever more important distribution channel for ETFs going forwards as the generation of new model advisers look further afield for the best, most cost-effective products combined with more emphasis on asset allocation. The Lyxor ETFs now available on Ascentric have management fees ranging from 0.30% to 0.70%.
The ETFs being launched on the platform are all listed on the London Stock. IFAs will be able to trade shares in Lyxor’s ETFs throughout open market hours and incorporate them into clients’ portfolios in a transparent and cost-effective way.
Dan Draper, Global Head of Lyxor ETFs, commented: “Lyxor is proud to join the Ascentric Platform. The UK IFA community represents a tremendous opportunity for exchange traded funds, which is expected to be the fastest growing European fund management segment over the next three years. We look forward to a fruitful partnership with Ascentric and its clients.”
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing at Ascentric, commented: “We are very pleased to have Lyxor ETFs available on the platform for our IFA users. As an independent, whole of market platform, our users expect to have access to new, up and coming funds and there has been a growing demand for the addition of Lyxor’s funds. I have no doubt that these funds will become a key part of the Ascentric fund offering going forward.”
Throughout 2008 investors were attracted to ETFs because of their cost efficiency, transparency, high liquidity and intra-day trading. Investors have been increasingly selecting index-tracking investments because the correlation between asset classes and their overall volatility are at high levels, making stock-picking extremely difficult. Those parties wishing to invest are buying whole markets and ETFs provide the most cost-efficient and convenient way to do so.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Lyxor Asset Management
Daniel Draper, Global Head of ETFs
Tel 0207 762 5581
Email: daniel.draper@sgcib.com
Issued by Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Phil Anderson, Stephen Sheppard, Laura Mugford, Sarah Rowan
Tel: 0207 638 9571
Email: phil.anderson@citigatedr.co.uk; stephen.sheppard@citigatedr.co.uk; laura.mugford@citigatedr.co.uk; sarah.rowan@citigatedr.co.uk
Notes to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
• Scottish Life – UK pensions market
• Bright Grey – UK protection market
• Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
• Scottish Provident – UK protection market
• Phoenix Life Assurance Limited – provides life and pensions products to Abbey’s national branch network
• RLAM – fund management
• RLAS – life and pensions administration
• Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £34.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.5 million customers and employ 2,900 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 September 2008.
Lyxor Asset Management - www.lyxor.com
Created in 1998, Lyxor AM currently manages EUR 60.6billion. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Société Générale Group, belonging to the Corporate and Investment Banking arm of the group, the asset management company specializes in three businesses:
- Alternative Investments (EUR 14.2 billion). Lyxor offers a broad range of hedge funds, funds of hedge funds and absolute return funds, adhering to high risk-management standards and rigorous hedge fund manager selection guidelines. Lyxor AM gained its prominence with its hedge fund platform. This platform includes more than 170 hedge funds covering all principal strategies and represents a diversified investment universe benefiting from a high level of transparency, security and liquidity.
- Structured Management (EUR 19.4 billion). Lyxor offers investment solutions to its customers adapted to their risk profiles and return objectives. These solutions integrate the innovations of the Group into this domain, world number 1 as regards structured products on equity.
- Index Tracking (EUR 27.0 billion). Lyxor offers one of the most diversified and liquid range of ETF (Exchange Traded Funds). The company is one of the top players of the European ETF industry. Lyxor ETFs are listed in Europe and Asia and reflect Equity, Bond and Commodity markets. www.lyxoretf.com.
Ascentric, the independent Wrap platform, has launched a new website www.ascentric.co.uk designed to show how it can support advisers looking to offer unbiased and unrestricted advice.
Ascentric, which offers an unfettered range of over 2,300 funds from 175 different fund managers as well as a broad range of tax wrappers, believes its easy to navigate website will be of tremendous benefit to IFAs considering a wrap for their clients.
The new IFA Zone provides up to date information on the Ascentric platform and includes a ‘Meet the Team’ section that enables advisers to identify who they will be dealing with throughout the sales process. A rolling demo has also been developed as part of the launch providing advisers with a thorough overview of the platform together with detail on how it can support their businesses and their clients.
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing said, “We enlisted the services of a new creative agency, Impress Media Ltd, who worked closely with us to produce an extremely informative and eye catching website.
“With easy to access information about our products and services, live news feeds from Yahoo Finance, the LSE and the BBC as well as forthcoming articles about the wrap marketplace, this new site supports our aim of building the Ascentric brand amongst key segments of the adviser market”.
He added that this is just the first phase in a series of developments to be made to the site over the next year and believes that the new website will be warmly received by advisers.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Ascentric
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing
Tel: 01225 787208, Mobile 07590 227039
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations
Martin Wood
Tel: 01252 656435, Mobile: 07946 527240
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Note to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
- Scottish Provident – UK protection market
- Phoenix Life Assurance Limited – provides life and pensions products to Abbey’s national branch network
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £34.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.5 million customers and employ 2,900 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 September 2008.
Ascentric, the whole of market Wrap Platform, now offers IFAs the opportunity to access the WAY Group Inheritance Tax (IHT) Plans. WAY’s reputation for providing specialist IHT plans is widely recognised and this new service will enable IFAs to offer sophisticated IHT tax planning facilities for their high net worth clients.
Three of the main WAY IHT Trust structures, Flexible Inheritor Plan, Gift from Income Plan and Inheritor Loan Plan, have initially been converted to “open architecture” to be available on the Ascentric Wrap. These plans will offer a wide choice of funds within the trusts and thus enable IFAs to manage the plan assets to suit their clients’ investment objectives. Proposals to add further WAY open architecture IHT plans are also in progress.
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing at Ascentric said, “We are very pleased to have the WAY Group IHT plans available on the platform for our IFA users. They add to our growing list of specialist service providers and we see this development as a reflection of the continuing success of the Ascentric Wrap.”
Paul Wilcox, Chairman of the WAY Group keen to highlight the opportunities for IFAs and their clients - “IFAs can use Ascentric as a one stop platform that now includes open architecture IHT plans to suit the needs of their high net worth clients. The beauty of this development is that the Ascentric Wrap service offers the opportunity for the IFA to select from a wide choice of funds available whilst also utilising the benefits of WAY’s Inheritor plans for their most important clients
Click here for further information
Ascentric, the whole of market Wrap platform, has increased the number of banks within its cash account to eight. The eight banks now available on the platform (Abbey, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Northern Rock, Nationwide and HBOS) are rated “A” or above by Standard & Poors. This means that clients using the Ascentric platform could have up to £400,000 (8 x £50,000) protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Please note that this amount is reduced by any deposit already held by the client in these insititutions.
Hugo Thorman, Chief Executive at Ascentric said, “With all the upheaval going on in the market at the moment it is important that our clients have the reassurance of knowing that their cash deposits are diversified across eight UK banks. Should the worst happen to one of these institutions, clients will be able to maximise on the benefits available through the FSCS.
Diversifying our cash portfolio across eight banks offers a market leading proposition and allows advisers to more closely meet the changing needs of their clients.”
Ascentric, the whole of market Wrap platform, expect more and more advisers to be driven to transparent platforms following the RDR Feedback Statement announced last week.
By outlining what it considers to be a poor example of a Wrap platform, the FSA has sent out a clear message to current Wrap providers that issues around re-registration will not be tolerated going forward. Ascentric has actively campaigned hard for this issue to be addressed and it is pleased that the protectionist bubble built up by those platforms has been well and truly burst.
Hugo Thorman, Executive Managing Director of Ascentric, said, “We welcomed the outcome of the FSA’s Statement for providing greater definition of Wrap platforms. In particular for highlighting current failings that exist in this sector and we believe this has very positive implications for our business model.
“The FSA is looking to drive transparency throughout the advice process and the Ascentric platform is fully able to support “unbiased, unrestricted advice” that our independent whole of market service offers.
“And at last the re-registration issue looks like reaching a long overdue conclusion.”
Independent Portfolio Managers (IPM) has been added to the Ascentric Wrap platform to provide white label discretionary fund management services to IFAs.
IPM offers a white label discretionary portfolio service using 6 model portfolios – 4 growth and 2 income portfolios each based on different risk scenarios. IPM is also willing to brand its discretionary services to individual IFAs, enabling them to add greater value to their own businesses.
Tony Curtis, Chief Executive of IPM said, “We provide discretionary and active fund management to an increasing number of IFAs and our portfolios are client risk based, either tailored or modelled.
“We have prided ourselves over the years as being forward thinking and are very research led. Some 18 months ahead of the latest collapse of Global stock markets we had already started moving client monies out of equities and into cash. As interest rates now fall we have already been shifting towards bonds and gilts.
“For IPM, Ascentric is an ideal platform to be on as their technology is web based and one of the best in the industry, they understand the IFA market, are financially secure, and are always flexible and open to new ideas.”
Hugo Thorman, Chief Executive at Ascentric said, “Ascentric is about choice for the IFA and their clients - choice of fund managers, choice of funds, and choice of products. IPM, with their range of model portfolios and willingness to brand their service to the IFA is a great addition to that choice.”
Ascentric, the whole of market Wrap platform, is delighted to announce that advisers can now access Talbot Muir for SSAS and TM SIPP services for SIPPs on their platform. Talbot Muir’s SASS and SIPP products include some of the most flexible and innovative plans available to UK advisers and their clients.
Michael Fordham, Executive Business Development Director at Ascentric said, “We are pleased to include Talbot Muir & TM SIPP services amongst the growing list of partners who provide product solutions on the Ascentric platform. Their innovative pension products increase the breadth and depth of product solutions available to advisers using the Ascentric Wrap service.”
Nathan Bridgeman, Director of Pension Consultancy at Talbot Muir said “TM supports independent platforms, enabling advisers and their clients to select the solution that best fits their needs. This latest development means that intermediaries can use a trustee who is genuinely independent and an administrator who not only offers both SIPP and SSAS wrappers, but has the ability to take in Protected Rights through its SIPP.
“We are also bolting on SIPPs to new and existing SSAS (to take Protected Rights) so the adviser and client can benefit from having a single view of the client’s pension pot. Talbot Muir has also just launched a new Expression of Wish and Bypass Trust that will help advisers to minimise, and in some cases mitigate, IHT on their clients’ pension death benefits.”
Following reports that UBS is to close its platform for external Discretionary Fund Managers (DFMs), Ascentric, the whole of market wrap provider, will make it as quick and easy as possible for the DFMs and the IFAs affected to transfer their client’s assets on to the Ascentric platform.
Executive Managing Director of Ascentric, Hugo Thorman said, “It is extremely unfortunate that very little notice has been given by UBS to its intentions which must be causing considerable concern amongst a number of IFAs who have been using external DFMs on the UBS platform.
“Ascentric will do everything in its power to help those IFAs who feel they have been abandoned by UBS’s decision. The priority now has to be for them to find a new platform quickly for their clients monies and we would ensure that any move on to our service would be as seamless as possible. We have asked UBS but unfortunately they declined to put forward our name to the IFAs affected”.
Any IFA or DFM wanting information about Ascentric should contact Michael Fordham on tel 0207 553 9170 or 0771 853 8541.
Private bank, Brown Shipley suggests a quarter of companies in the FTSE 350 will be reducing or scrapping their dividends over the next twelve months, and admits this is probably a conservative figure.
In order to off-set the fall in income, Brown Shipley will be using various asset classes ie equities, bonds, Gilts, and cash (see notes to editors). But the private bank states that equities will need to be selected on their probability of actually paying the dividends, and over-weighting the key sectors such as oil and utilities.
Investors who have run their equity portfolios primarily to provide an income have been particularly badly hit by the collapse in the banking sector as this has not only wiped out a large slice of capital value but, considering that banks provided almost 30% of total income from the UK market, any portfolio which had an appreciable weighting to the sector will now see a significant fall in income as well.
Peter Botham, Brown Shipley’s Chief Investment Officer said, "Our list of recommended stocks has been designed for two purposes. One is to act as a ‘core’ portfolio for investors looking to enter the UK equity market."
Whilst recent stock market falls have seen the yield on equities rising, price movements in the Gilt market have seen yields fall to extreme levels, as markets become convinced that the Bank of England will be cutting rates in the near future.
"Our view is that current equities market levels present an opportunity to invest which will be rewarded over the medium term. Warren Buffet recently stated that he had no idea whether the U.S. equity market would be higher in a year’s time, but on a longer timescale he felt very positive about committing funds into equities and we agree."
"One reasonable way of determining ‘value’ is to look at the income which will be derived from equities versus cash. As it seems a certainty that interest rates will be falling, the return from cash is set to become negligible, particularly for higher rate income tax clients. Therefore, the second prime use of our core list will be to provide yield with a high degree of certainty."
The yields on Brown Shipley’s core stocks demonstrate their attractions relative to cash and Gilts, particularly as a most of these companies will still be increasing their payments over the next year. The latest figures from BP and Shell demonstrated their monumental cashflows, and the effects these can have on dividend payments.
Botham added, "Not only did BP raise the Q3 dividend by 29% but, in a rare bit of good news for shareholders, the weakness of the Pound against the Dollar will mean a 40% increase for UK based investors. It is becoming clear that oil will now replace banks as the most sought after sector for income managers, and this is reflected in the recent out-performance of both oil majors."
"It is noticeable that most of the high income stocks have out-performed the market. I believe that this trend will continue. Investors will not only be seeking to replace lost income from elsewhere, but most of the stocks on our core list are in defensive or dependable sectors."
"The impending recession does not mean that we should be piling into cyclical sectors just yet, as there will be plenty of bad news still to come. Stock markets always move in anticipation of an event, but it is unlikely that we have reached the inflexion point. In essence, don’t chase the excitement: stay dull but safe."
Ascentric, the whole of market Wrap provider, announces the appointment of Mike Stacey as new Head of Dealing.
Mike’s appointment will allow Ascentric to significantly enhance its dealing service in Funds and exchange based securities. He will manage a dedicated team of dealers, executing trades for Ascentric’s rapidly growing client base.
Prior to Ascentric, Mike has worked in a variety of market making and trading environments at Christows Stockbrokers, the CMC Group, Beeson Gregory, Merrill Lynch International, Granville Investment Management and IFDS over a 14 year period.
Hugo Thorman, Executive Managing Director of Ascentric said, “Mike has joined the team at this busy and exciting time for the company. His vast experience and understanding of the equity markets will ensure further improvement and the continued success of this expanding business function”.
Ascentric was jointly awarded ‘Best New Platform’ at the ‘adnitor 2008 UK Platform Awards Dinner’ last night (Tuesday 21 October). The awards, in conjunction with CWC Research, were held at the Café Royal in London.
The ‘adnitor awards’ coincided with the annual Platforum Conference earlier in the day where Hugo Thorman, from Ascentric was one of a number of Chief Executive Officers debating the very important issue of Wrap Platform usage with IFA groups.
These annual awards celebrate the initiatives undertaken in the market and the evolving Wrap market. It also recognises that platforms will increasingly form a core part of the UK intermediated financial services landscape.
Hugo Thorman said, “Our sector is incredibly competitive with a host of new players entering the market in recent years. It gives me great pleasure that Ascentric has been recognised in this way as it is testament to the hard work of my team and the rigorous way we ensure our Platform reflects the needs of advisers. This can only spur us on to more success in the future”
The first adnitor Platform Awards were held in February 2007. Last night’s dinner brought together over 300 people, with attendance from every Intermediary platform currently in the UK market and some of those intending to launch in the near future.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Mark Murphy
Ascentric
Email: mark.murphy@ascentric.co.uk
Tel: 01225 787208
Mobile: 07788 107373
Issued by Concise Public Relations:
Martin Wood
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Tel: 01252 656435
Mobile: 07946 527240
Note to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value premium propositions, operating through a number of brands:
• Scottish Life – UK pensions market
• Bright Grey – UK protection market
• Scottish Life International – offshore investment markets
• Scottish Provident International – offshore investment markets
• RLAM – fund management
• RLAS – life and pensions administration
• Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap Platform
Royal London is one of the stronger life and pension companies in the UK, and has a strong track record for with-profits performance.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £32.6 billion. Group businesses serve around three million customers and employ 2,630 people (figures quoted are as at 31 March 2008).
Brand new look for local success
Bath based Fundsdirect, the UK’s first investment funds supermarket for consumers, has been given a brand new look following its rapid growth over the last two years and to communicate clearly its activities.
Since moving offices to Palace Yard Mews in the City centre in July 2007, Fundsdirect has more than doubled its workforce in Bath to over 70 employees and continues to grow rapidly. There has been heavy recruitment across the board but particularly in the IT and operational areas, reflecting a robust and successful business model. They continue to be interested in hearing from potential employees who have experience working in financial services.
Fundsdirect provides an online ‘trading platform’ whereby members of the public buy and sell investment funds securely from one place. It offers a choice of almost 3000 funds from 180 different fund management groups.
Its sister operation, Ascentric, provides a whole of market ‘Wrap’ service (see notes to editors) to over 100 Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) and their clients. Together, Fundsdirect and Ascentric have £650 million of clients’ money invested (funds under management).
Hugo Thorman, Executive Managing Director of both Fundsdirect and Ascentric Wrap said,
“I believe funds under management in our sector including those that are ‘wrapable’ could eventually account for £2 trillion and our target is to reach £10 billion in less than five years compared with our current £650 million but that could easily be dwarfed to a possible £100 billion – so there is plenty of room to really grow the business.
“We have skilled employees which continue to grow in number, and can already pride ourselves on being at the leading edge of developments in technology that will continue to be enhanced with our expected market growth. We’ve been impressed with the quality of candidates we been able to attract in the Bath and Bristol area. With strong financial backing from our parent company Royal London Group we expect to continue an active recruitment policy.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
For further information, please contact:
Dominic Ventham
Head of Marketing
01225 787208
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Rebecca Drewe, HR Manager
Fundsdirect
Email: rebecca.drewe@fundsdirect.co.uk
Tel: 01225 787294
Issued by Concise Public Relations:
Martin Wood
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Mobile: 07946 527240
Notes to Editors
1. A ‘Wrap’ allows a client and their adviser to view all their investments and up to date values at any time via the internet. It is called a ‘Wrap’ because all the products (eg pensions, ISAs, PEPs) and investments are ‘wrapped’ up in one account.
The aim of a ‘Wrap’ is to allow a client, with the assistance of their financial adviser, to select and purchase investments from a wide range of equities, unit trusts and Open Ended Investment Companies (OEICs) and other investment schemes and cash. They can select the most appropriate product within which to hold these investments to optimise tax advantage and best meet their financial objectives.
2. Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group, is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
• Scottish Life – UK pensions market
• Bright Grey – UK protection market
• Scottish Provident – UK protection market
• Phoenix Life Assurance Limited – provides life and pensions products to Abbey’s national branch network
• Scottish Life International – offshore investment markets
• Scottish Provident International – offshore investment markets
• RLAM – fund management
• RLAS – life and pensions administration
• Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £32.4 billion. Group businesses serve around three million customers and employ 2,750 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 June 2008, prior to the acquisition of Scottish Provident’s new business capabilities (in respect of individual life protection business) and of Phoenix Life Assurance Limited.
Hindu Blessing
Ascentric’s new Indian operation in Bangalore has been given a traditional Hindu ceremony consecrating the office to provide prosperity and success for all those who work there.
The new office will continue to develop the successful Blue-button technology that powers the Ascentric wrap platform.
The hour long ceremony was led by Sashi Chandru, Managing Director of Ascentric’s Indian operation who also blessed David Harvey, Ascentric’s IT Director and Alex Mitchell, Ascentric’s Programme Manager to ensure all their dealings in the office are carried out humbly and in good faith. Molloy Bannerjee, Chairman of Ascentric’s Indian operation was present throughout. (photographs attached)
Hugo Thorman, Ascentric’s Executive Managing Director said, “The new office facilities and space provides us with plenty of opportunity to extend the team further to accommodate our development plans for the Ascentric and White Label propositions.
“In addition to carrying out technical design, coding and testing, we also have an ‘architecture team’ who are focused on evolving the Blue-button system as technology progresses.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Dominic Ventham
Head of Marketing
01225 787208
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations:
Martin Wood
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Tel: 01252 656435
Mobile: 07946 527240
Note to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either
www.ascentric.co.uk or
www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value premium propositions, operating through a number of brands:
• Scottish Life – UK pensions market
• Bright Grey – UK protection market
• Scottish Life International – offshore investment markets
• Scottish Provident International – offshore investment markets
• RLAM – fund management
• RLAS – life and pensions administration
• Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap Platform
Royal London is one of the stronger life and pension companies in the UK, and has a strong track record for with-profits performance.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £32.6 billion. Group businesses serve around three million customers and employ 2,630 people (figures quoted are as at 31 March 2008).
New brand look
New brand identities have been given to the Ascentric Wrap and Fundsdirect brands to clearly communicate their respective activities.
Hugo Thorman, Executive Managing Director of both Ascentric Wrap and Fundsdirect said, “I am pleased to announce that we have updated the Ascentric and Fundsdirect logos and tag lines. The two brands are used in different ways and for different audiences: Ascentric for IFAs; and Fundsdirect for our direct customers and white label business.
“This initiative cuts out any possible confusion between the brands whilst creating a cohesive house style. The images are clear and modern and epitomise the way we work with our business partners. We intend to invest even more heavily in the Ascentric brand in particular over the coming months and I am really excited by our new look.”
The previous Ascentric tag line has been replaced with ‘the whole of market wrap’ as a key discriminator in a rapidly expanding market. In addition, the lettering and prefix have been updated across both brands ahead of a major marketing offensive.
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited which is part of the Royal London Group.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
For further information, please contact:
Dominic Ventham
Head of Marketing
01225 787208
Email: dominic.ventham@ascentric.co.uk
Issued by Concise Public Relations:
Martin Wood
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Tel: 01252 656435
Mobile: 07946 527240
Note to Editors
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either
www.ascentric.co.uk or
www.fundsdirect.co.ukRoyal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value premium propositions, operating through a number of brands:
• Scottish Life – UK pensions market
• Bright Grey – UK protection market
• Scottish Life International – offshore investment markets
• Scottish Provident International – offshore investment markets
• RLAM – fund management
• RLAS – life and pensions administration
• Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap Platform
Royal London is one of the stronger life and pension companies in the UK, and has a strong track record for with-profits performance.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £32.6 billion. Group businesses serve around three million customers and employ 2,630 people (figures quoted are as at 31 March 2008).
Ascentric, the whole of market Wrap provider, is pleased to announce a senior appointment within the Business Development team, to assist with the promotion of its services to major IFA accounts, national adviser groups and IFA networks.
Robert Beverley has been appointed as Strategic Accounts Manager focusing on the development of new business relationships with major distributors.
Robert brings to Ascentric 15 years of experience within the financial services industry, including eight years specifically in the UK wrap and fund supermarket sector at organisations including wrap technology provider InfoComp, specialist wrap consultancy Adnitor, American Express and Co-Operative Bank Financial Advisers.
Michael Fordham, Business Development Director, said, “We are delighted that Rob has joined the business to help promote the services we offer to major and national IFAs accounts. His wealth of experience in the wrap platform market and his understanding of the needs of large adviser groups will help deliver the Ascentric offering to this sector of the market.”
Ascentric Wrap offers IOMA IHT Solutions to IFAs
Specialist IHT plans for IFAs from Isle of Man Assurance (IOMA) are now available on Ascentric the whole of market Wrap platform. IOMA’s IHT plans include some of the most flexible and innovative structures available to UK advisers and their clients from an offshore life company.
Michael Fordham, Business Development Director at Ascentric said: “We are pleased to include IOMA amongst the growing list of partners who provide product solutions on the Ascentric Platform. While we already have partners who provide offshore bonds to our advisers, the relationship with IOMA takes this a step further by linking different bonds and different trusts to provide niche IHT products. This further increases the range of solutions available to advisers and their clients who use the Ascentric platform.”
Mike Biggin, a Director at Admiral Asset Management, which was one of the first IFAs to start using Ascentric and has already used the IOMA proposition via the Ascentric platform, said: “I came across IOMA and its flexible IHT products last year and was keen to use their plans. By IOMA product being available on Ascentric, it enables us to access their innovative solutions and couple them to cutting edge investment administration. The experience for us and the client has to date been first rate.”
Antony Kelsey, Associate Director at IOMA commented: “As a niche offshore product provider, our focus is on delivering value through product solutions rather than investments. Increasingly we are finding advisers are seeking more flexible IHT products when compared to traditional offerings. Products today need to allow a flexible or increasing income, the ability to advance monies to beneficiaries while the settlor is alive as well as simple exit routes at the end of the planning. Our products are designed with these client requirements in mind. The link-up with Ascentric allows the IFAs who use its platform to access the benefits that IOMA’s range of flexible IHT products provide in a highly efficient manner. Working with Ascentric also fits neatly into our business model allowing them to deliver streamlined Wrap service for our high-end product solution and we are delighted to be working alongside them.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
For further information, please contact:
Michael Fordham
Business Development Director - Ascentric
E-mail: michael.fordham@ascentric.co.uk
Tel: 0207 553 9170
Mobile: 07718538541
About Ascentric
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either
www.ascentric.co.uk or
www.fundsdirect.co.ukRoyal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value premium propositions, operating through a number of brands:
• Scottish Life – UK pensions market
• Bright Grey – UK protection market
• Scottish Life International – offshore investment markets
• Scottish Provident International – offshore investment markets
• RLAM – fund management
• RLAS – life and pensions administration
• Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap Platform
Royal London is one of the stronger life and pension companies in the UK, and has a strong track record for with-profits performance.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £32.6 billion. Group businesses serve around three million customers and employ 2,630 people (figures quoted are as at 31 March 2008).
Ascentric, the whole of market Wrap provider, is pleased to announce a senior appointment within the Business Development team, to assist with the promotion of its services to major IFA accounts, national adviser groups and IFA networks.
Robert Beverley has been appointed as Strategic Accounts Manager focusing on the development of new business relationships with major distributors.
Robert brings to Ascentric 15 years of experience within the financial services industry, including eight years specifically in the UK wrap and fund supermarket sector at organisations including wrap technology provider InfoComp, specialist wrap consultancy Adnitor, American Express and Co-Operative Bank Financial Advisers.
Michael Fordham, Business Development Director, said, "We are delighted that Rob has joined the business to help promote the services we offer to major and national IFAs accounts. His wealth of experience in the wrap platform market and his understanding of the needs of large adviser groups will help deliver the Ascentric offering to this sector of the market."
Ascentric, the whole of market Wrap Provider, is pleased to announce three new appointments that further strengthen the new business and transition teams providing support to new and existing IFA users of the platform.
David Hoare - has been appointed as Business Development Manager for the Midlands and East Anglia. David has worked in the Financial Services industry for 21 years with some of the UK&rsquos leading providers and has an in-depth knowledge of all IFA sectors and product markets. David will be responsible for developing new business with IFAs across the Midlands and East Anglia, supported by Ann Marie Baker, the Training and Relationship Manager for the region.
Sarah Stephens - Training and Relationship Manager for Scotland and Northern Ireland. Sarah has over 9 years financial services experience, encompassing 3 years as a Business Manager and latterly as a Relationship and Account manager within the Intermediary sector. Since 2006, Sarah has been looking after high net worth accounts in Scotland, which provides her with the knowledge and experience to assist IFAs deliver a quality Wrap service for high net worth clients.
Vicki Cooper - Training and Relationship Manager for the North England. Vicki has 12 years experience in the financial services sector with a background in IFA Support, IT & Customer Services with a major life company. Her knowledge of the IFA market, Wrap implementation and project management will offer Ascentric users in the north, valuable assistance in developing a Wrap based business.
Both Sarah and Vicki will provide Ascentric training and assistance for IFA practises in their respective regions and support these IFAs during the transition period. Vicki will also support Steve Spruce Business Development Manager in the North and Sarah will support Stuart Walker in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Michael Fordham, Business Development Director, said, "We have been delighted with the high calibre of the people that have joined the business to support our IFA users and feel that we are well positioned to continue to go from strength to strength. Our national coverage enables IFAs across the UK to be assured that they will receive the support they expect when using the Ascentric Wrap to develop their business."
Ascentric, the whole of market Wrap Platform now offers IFAs the opportunity to select the Castleton Growth Fund from Barmac Asset Management Limited, from amongst its 150 fund managers and two thousand funds, The Castleton Growth Fund is one of only 4% of all OEICs to make a positive return in the first quarter 2008.
Michael Fordham, Business Development Director said "We are pleased to include Barmac Asset Management amongst the impressive and continually growing list of Fund Managers we have on the Ascentric Platform. We now have approximately two thousand funds available from around 150 fund managers. Barmac are also available as discretionary managers on the platform, taking the choice of discretionary managers to five with more due to be added shortly."
Andrew Bartles, director of Barmac Asset Management, had this to say "The Castleton Growth Fund is a true actively managed fund. Many funds, whilst fully invested in the market are, in fact, passively managed and rely on being bench marked to a particular index. No problem when there is a market upturn, but when the market goes through tough conditions, as they have done in recent months, investors take a hit no matter how well the fund is managed. At Barmac we do not like to give our investors surprises and believe in a capital preservation strategy in volatile times. Using our unique brand of technical analysis and investment management experience, we can analyse whether markets are moving in a positive or negative direction and either increase our equity exposure or, as in this present turbulent environment, move to cash as a defensive mechanism. We believe that the Castleton Growth Fund continues to offer protection during the current market uncertainty, but can move quickly to take advantage of a market rally when it happens".
Ascentric, the Independent Wrap Provider, announces three new appointments, within Business Development and Operations. These appointments further strengthen the new business and transition teams who support new IFA users of the platform.
Steve White joins Ascentric as Head of Training and Relationship Management, Richard Beeby as Training and Relationship Manager (TRM) for London and Stuart Walker as Business Development Manager (BDM) for Scotland & Northern Ireland.
Steve White will be responsible for the training and transitions team who are regionally based throughout the UK to support new and existing IFA users during the transition of their business onto the Ascentric wrap platform.
Richard Beeby will support the transition of IFA assets on to the platform for London and the M25 area. He will also provide training and give ongoing assistance to existing IFA users of the platform.
The TRM team now includes:
| Simon Elliott |
South |
| Simon Harris |
South West |
| Ian Beardow |
South East |
| Richard Beeby |
London |
| Ann Marie Baker |
Midlands |
Further TRMs are also due to join shortly and will cover the regions of North England and Scotland & Northern Ireland to work alongside the BDMs.
Stuart Walker joins as regional BDM for Scotland & Northern Ireland and will be the primary contact for new IFAs in these areas. He will be supported by a TRM in the region from next month.
Nick Jones Head of Sales, said, “Since joining Ascentric in February the focus has been to strengthen the Business Development team and I am delighted that we continue to attract such high quality recruits. The team now has extensive experience in intermediary sales, as well as in depth knowledge of IFAs and their business needs. These greater resources will allow us to promote the benefits of Ascentric to IFAs across the UK”.
The BDM team consists of:
| Freda Valassakis |
|
London |
| Steve Spruce |
|
North England |
| Nick Jones |
|
South East |
| Stuart Walker |
|
Scotland & Northern Ireland |
Michael Fordham, Business Development Director of Ascentric said, “We have been building a strong sales and transitions team to enable us to provide effective support to IFAs wishing to come onto the platform. With the recruitment nearing completion, the backing of Royal London and the continued development of the platform, we are now well placed to deliver a premier IFA wrap service for the whole of the UK market”.
Ascentric the Independent Wrap Provider announces two key Management appointments David Harvey as IT Director and Alex Mitchell the new Programme Manager.
Investment Funds Direct Ltd (IFDL) is based in Bath and London and trade as Ascentric the Independent Wrap service for IFAs and Fundsdirect the fund supermarket for direct investors.
David Harvey will head the IT function at IFDL with prime responsibility for the delivery of new Wrap and White Label functionality. He started his career in IT working on stockbroking applications and has been involved in the development and management of financial applications throughout. He brings to the company a wealth of knowledge and experience of investment platforms and effective IT management.
Alex Mitchell will be responsible for the implementation of company wide change management and core developments and will work closely with David overseeing internal and client-initiated projects as well as working on IT operations and strategy. Alex has over 25 years experience in IT and programme management with 20 years in the financial sector.
Michael Fordham , Business Development Director of Ascentric said "Our IT applications are central to all the services we provide and we are proud that the Ascentric Wrap platform is regarded as one of the sector leaders. The appointments of David and Alex will strengthen our IT management team further and ensure the Ascentric platform remains at the forefront of the wrap market".
From 1st July 2008 Ascentric the Independent Wrap provider will introduce three new tiers of higher interest rates for cash held on their platform.
The previous top tier for cash held earned clients 4.50% on £50,000 or above. Now the highest band offers an interest rate of 5.00% and applies to balances over £500,000. In addition there are two further tiers offering high rates for cash balances between £150,000 and £500,000 as shown below:
|
|
Interest Rates Bands
|
|
Entry Level of Band (£)
|
Ceiling Level of Band (£)
|
Interest Rate (%)
|
0
|
9,999
|
3.30%
|
10,000
|
19,999
|
3.80%
|
20,000
|
29,999
|
4.00%
|
30,000
|
49,999
|
4.25%
|
50,000
|
149,999
|
4.50%
|
150,000
|
249,999
|
4.75%
|
250,000
|
499,999
|
4.85%
|
500,000
|
-
|
5.00%
|
Pale blue areas denote the new interest tiers.
Interest will continue to be calculated daily and applied to accounts quarterly. These interest rates have been set independently of the Bank of England and Investment Funds Direct Limited reserves the right to amend these rates at any time.
With the stability of financial institutions currently under the spotlight Ascentric has appointed Royal London Cash Management to spread the cash deposits across banks rated AA and above by Standard and Poor and maximise the interest returns for clients.
Hugo Thorman Managing Director of Ascentric remarked “This is good news for both IFAs and their clients as we aim to improve the rates of interest available on cash balances. This also supports the change in our market as more high net worth clients hold a greater proportion of cash on our platform”.
City Financial the London-based asset management group has signed an agreement with Investment Funds Direct Limited the providers of the Ascentric Wrap platform. The independent wrap service exclusively for IFAs and the Fundsdirect fund supermarket for direct investors will now include access to City Financials Fund range.
The following funds are now available to investors directly through the online platform:
City Financial MultiManager Growth Fund
City Financial MultiManager Income Fund
City Financial Diversified Absolute Return Fund
City Financial UK Select Alpha Fund
City Financial Strategic Global Bond Fund
City Financial Strategic Gilt Fund
Commenting on the agreement Andrew Williams CEO of City Financial said: “City Financial offers advisers and investors a series of funds managed by individuals who are masters of their craft such as the market-leading City Financial Strategic Gilt Fund and the City Financial Multi-Manager Income Fund.
Effective distribution is a vital aspect to our business and Ascentric has proven to be extremely popular with IFAs across the UK. We are therefore delighted that City Financial’s range of funds is now available on the Ascentric platform. I expect it will contribute significantly to creating further awareness of our funds”.
Michael Fordham Business Development Director added “We are pleased to welcome City Financial to our extensive list of quality Fund Managers. Our strategy is to make available a market wide range of funds that enable our IFAs to selct the right funds to suit their clients’ needs. The City Financial Funds further broaden this choice and bring the total number of Fund Managers to 150”.
To view the extensive range accessible on the Ascentric fund list please visit www.ascentric.co.uk
Ascentric, the Independent Wrap Provider, announce that Stenham Asset Management and MFS Investment Management have joined its expanding list of fund managers, bringing the total funds available via the wrap platform to around 2,000.
Stenham Asset Management brings the Stenham Multi Strategy Fund to the Ascentric fund list and MFS Investment Management adds seven different Meridan Funds including Asia Pacific, Continental and Global Equity A2.
In addition, IPS Pensions Ltd (IPS) has also been added to Ascentric’s Product Partner list as a SIPP provider. Based in Bristol, IPS has over 30 years experience providing self invested pensions. This brings the total number of SIPP providers available on the platform to 14.
Ascentric are currently in negotiations with a number of other potential product partners to further enhance the range of SIPPs, SASSs, Onshore and Offshore Bonds available to the clients of their IFA users.
Michael Fordham, Business Development Director of Ascentric said, “We currently have approximately 150 Fund Managers offering over 1,900 funds between them on our platform – giving IFAs and their clients a tremendous list to choose from. However, to ensure we continue to support IFAs we will endeavour to add fund managers and product partners as needed to meet their clients’ requirements.”
Ascentric, the Independent Wrap Provider, announces two new appointments, within the areas of Business Development and Operations, who will support IFAs - with more new staff to join in the next couple of months.
John Braybrook joins Ascentric as Business Development Manager (BDM) for Wales and the South West of England and Ian Beardow, as a Training and Relationship Manager (TRM) for the South East.
John Braybrook will work closely with Nick Jones, Head of Sales, to help develop new business and be the initial contact for IFAs in Wales and the South West.
Ian Beardow will focus on the South East to develop the business further and support the transition of IFA assets on to the platform. Ian will also provide any training and give ongoing assistance to existing IFA users of the Ascentric Wrap. Both John and Ian have over 30 years combined experience in the financial sector.
Michael Fordham Business Development Director of Ascentric said, “In addition to John and Ian, we are in the process of recruiting more BDMs to cover Scotland, East Anglia and the Midlands as well as TRMs for London and the M25, Northern England and Scotland. Our aim is to ensure that we continue to support IFAs across the whole of the UK - these and future appointments really underline this strategic commitment.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
For further information, please contact:
Michael Fordham
Business Development Director - Ascentric
E-mail: michael.fordham@ascentric.co.uk
Tel: 0207 553 9170
Mobile: 07718538541
John Braybrook: Career history - Started as a trainee IFA Consultant and worked as a Consultant in Leicester and Norfolk until joining Norwich Union in 1998 in Norwich. He moved from Consultant to Investment Development Manager and then Business Development Manager for their Wrap proposition in 2007.
Ian Beardow: Career history - 25 years in financial services working for Barclays Bank (IFA sales in South West), Clerical Medical (Broker Sales in South East) & Friends Provident (Broker Consultant in London).
About Ascentric
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value premium propositions, operating through a number of brands:
• Scottish Life – UK pensions market
• Bright Grey – UK protection market
• Scottish Life International – offshore investment markets
• Scottish Provident International – offshore investment markets
• RLAM – fund management
• RLAS – life and pensions administration
• Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap Platform
Royal London is one of the stronger life and pension companies in the UK, and has a strong track record for with-profits performance.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £32.6 billion. Group businesses serve around three million customers and employ 2,630 people (figures quoted are as at 31 March 2008).
Ascentric, the Independent Wrap Provider has become a corporate sponsor of the Institute of Financial Planning (IFP) as a further commitment to supporting Financial Planners, the backbone to the financial services sector.
Through its sponsorship, Ascentric hopes to help promote the Institute, its aims and gain valuable feedback of IFP members to help shape the future of wrap services for the industry going forward.
As a ‘Whole of Market’ wrap service exclusively for IFAs and Financial Planners, Ascentric believes Financial Planner participation and their ability to meet client needs is crucial.
Michael Fordham, Ascentric’s Business Development Director said that; “Ascentric has already been an active supporter of the IFP and share a common purpose in their support of Financial Planners, their individual development, and the evolution of supporting technology and services. By aligning ourselves with the IFP, including sponsorship of Regional and National Conferences, we now want to help promote the IFP and its aims further.
“Financial Planning firms that brand a wrap and link the service to their own website, not only assist the promotion of their own brand, but also enhance their service offering by giving their clients access to online valuations and portfolio information.”
The Ascentric Wrap offers a fully integrated online consolidation and dealing platform providing IFAs with the facilities necessary to transfer, view and control all their clients’ assets in just one place for more effective management of their financial affairs.
Nick Cann, Chief Executive Officer of the IFP comments “The integration of wrap technology into the business has become a “must have” for professional Financial Planners aiming to provide a high quality and totally client-centric service. We are really pleased that Ascentric have become sponsors, and we look forward to working with them to further develop the rapidly growing Financial Planning profession here in the UK.”
Fundsdirect today announces that Sterling Investment Bond valuations are now available on the Ascentric wrap platform.
Intermediaries using the Ascentric platform will now be able to view all their clients investments held with Ascentric product partners on just one screen for the first time.
Hugo Thorman, Executive Managing Director of Ascentric said, "I am delighted with this development which completes our full integration with the Sterling Bond. The introduction of Sterling Bond valuations follow the launch of the quote and apply facility in February, allowing intermediaries to request Sterling Bond quotes and submit new Bond applications online through the Ascentric platform. This latest development reflects our intention to provide a true whole of market wrap service for advisers."
Chris Gillies, Managing Director of Zurich Intermediary Group commented, "Zurich supports independent platforms, enabling advisers and their clients to select the solution that best fits their needs. This latest development means that intermediaries can purchase and view the Sterling Bond through the Ascentric platform alongside their clients other investments, making it easier to access our award winning, triple e rated Investment Bond."
In response to the FSA Feedback Statement 08/1 Ascentric welcomed the clarification from the FSA that it viewed Life and Pension Wrappers as not ‘benign’, thus implying IFAs will find it difficult to justify exclusive use of any platform that does not offer a choice of product wrappers.
Whilst the choice of product wrappers will remain an emotive issue with many Platform Providers, the FSA’s feedback statement to its discussion paper DP07/02 “Platforms: the role of wraps and fund supermarkets” is viewed by Ascentric as providing a very sensible and incisive response to the issues that have been covered by both the original discussion paper and the subsequent feedback..
Hugo Thorman, Executive Managing Director Ascentric and Fundsdirect, said “We are extremely happy with the outcome from all the industry discussions surrounding the FSA paper, and concur with the findings of the FSA.”
In particular Hugo Thorman made reference to the following:
• We welcome the Principles-Based regulation approach to platforms, proposed by the FSA, as the diverse nature of issues arising from platforms would be difficult to cover adequately by a set of prescriptive rules and regulations.
• More importantly the principles based approach also ensures that the key issues of ensuring customer suitability of products and services, clear and transparent charging, IFA remuneration and adviser independence are primarily addressed.
• The FSA’s three primary concerns in respect of Platforms, cost to customers, potential for conflicts of interest and need for competent advisers, are all fully recognised and shared.
• The FSA has quite rightly identified that platform use goes hand in hand with the transition of intermediaries from a transaction based business model to a fee based remuneration model. Thereby, offering clients ongoing services that deliver a better outcome in terms of providing for customer needs and treating them fairly.
• Ascentric very much welcomes the support that the FSA has given in both papers, regarding the market moving towards fee based adviser remuneration with clear and transparent charging. In common with the FSA, we see no place in the new world for old style bundled and obscure pricing of advice, products and services.
• Of particular note is that the FSA has been clear in their response that, “at present, life and pensions products are not “benign” wrappers” as they generally involve varying charges and product features that mean some life or pension products are suitable for some customers and others are not”. We consider this to be an important issue for platforms as many do not permit a choice of life and pension products necessary to enable adviser selection based on client suitability.
• We therefore support the FSA’s view that advisers “should give careful consideration to reassessing which platform to use on an ongoing basis in order to ensure the choice remains appropriate for their customers and the services they provide”. We believe that this is a key issue and are pleased that the FSA agree that a choice of a platform by an adviser firm should not limit their responsibility to recommend appropriate product wrappers that meet the individual suitability test for each of their clients.
• As a platform created by IFAs for IFAs, we have always recognised the potential for conflict of interest and therefore have ensured full disclosure to the customer. We also understand the need to manage this conflict and this clarification from the FSA is welcome.
• Notwithstanding the above, we view the greater potential conflicts of interest to be the selection of platforms based on convenience or other factors that benefit the firm or network whilst restricting the choice of suitable products to those offered by the platform provider and the potential conflict inherent with bundled and opaque remuneration for providers and advisers.
• The FSA reiterated the point made in the discussion paper that “intermediaries should consider any constraints a platform imposes and whether the platform is therefore appropriate for them and their customers”. This seems particularly relevant to both ease of re-registration and choice of product wrapper provider.
Ascentric can offer intermediaries a wrap platform that is aligned with the aims of the FSA.
Details of the Ascentric proposition can be found at www.ascentric.co.uk or intermediaries wishing a face to face meeting with Ascentric should call customer services on 0871 423 6000.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Hugo Thorman
Executive Managing Director - Ascentric
E-mail: hugo.thorman@ascentric.co.uk
Tel: 0207 553 9158
Mobile: 07710 877 998
As Alistair Darling confirmed the changes to the ISA and PEP regime, effective from 6th April 2008, in yesterday’s budget, Ascentric, the independent Wrap platform, are making ready for the influx of top-ups expected in the next couple of weeks for 2007/2008 ISAs.
74% of the entire Ascentric customer base has an existing ISA. The main changes made to the ISA regime are available to view on the Ascentric website
www.ascentric.co.uk
Ascentric has the ability to produce reports for their IFA clients to establish just how much investment has been made into each of the firms ISA customers, giving them the information they need to be pro active in contacting those who still have time to maximize their allowance.
Hugo Thorman, Executive Managing Director of Ascentric said, “The IFA reporting section of our platform provides a wealth of information to ensure the IFAs can provide the best service to their customers. The ‘IFA Available ISA Subscription Amounts’ report is an easy way to view all the firms ISA customers to establish who could top up on the approach to year end and who to contact, to advise of the budget changes.”
“The information we provide can also help IFAs conform to the FSAs Treating Customers Fairly regulations by giving the consumers relevant, suitable information before, during and post sale.”
Funds on the Ascentric Wrap platform have started 2008 at £225 million – up a further £50 million since October 2007 and more than double the £100 million announced in August 2007.
These funds are split 17% ISA/PEPs, 39% pensions (SIPPs and SSASs) and 13% offshore bonds while 31% is in the General Investment account (GIA) which contains taxed investments.
Hugo Thorman, Chief Executive of Ascentric said, “As the Ascentric Wrap was only launched to the whole IFA market 12 months ago this level of growth is truly spectacular.
“And with the recent additions to our team, additional investment in our technical infrastructure and sound financial backing for the future, I expect 2008 to be a sensational year for Ascentric”.
Today, the Ascentric Platform offers over 1850 funds from 104 Fund managers.
Online funds supermarket, Fundsdirect, which provides the Ascentric Wrap to IFAs, has appointed David Hudd as Operations Director.
Mr Hudd previously held senior positions with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Computershare Investor Services, one of the world’s leading financial services and technology providers. He has considerable experience in operational delivery, strategic development, project management, business change and improvement. He was until leaving Computershare FSA approved person with experience in regulated and non regulated business environments.
Commenting on the appointment Hugo Thorman, Chief Executive of Fundsdirect and Ascentric said, "David’s appointment reflects the tremendous growth we as a business have been enjoying and the importance of making sure our systems and platform meet the highest delivery standards."
In October, Royal London made a strategic investment in Fundsdirect and the Ascentric Wrap for IFAs which ensures its continued expansion.
For further information contact:
Hugo Thorman on 0207 553 9158 / 07710 877 998 or hugo.thorman@ascentric.co.uk
Response to FSA Discussion Paper – Platforms: the role of wraps and fund supermarkets
IFA Wrap platform, Ascentric, firmly believes the concept of independence should remain undiluted in terms of 'whole of market'. This was just one observation in its response to the FSA Discussion Paper on Platforms: the role of wraps and fund supermarkets.
Focusing on independent advice and whole of market offerings, Hugo Thorman, Chief Executive of Ascentric said, "There is no reason why the long standing requirement for 'whole of market product wrapper choice' should not also be applied to platforms. Product wrappers remain differentiated and independence should mean that the most suitable has been selected.
"Having said that we accept there is a role for a truly 'benign' wrapper, as suggested in the document, and where this is demonstrated it could obviate the need for 'whole of market' choice. But a concern must remain on what is sufficiently 'benign'.
"The FSA should look particularly at low, or even negligible, charges, high levels of transparency and absence of penalties. Any platform wishing to benefit from this relaxation should demonstrate adequately these features."
Ascentric also stated that platform providers should offer access to a sufficiently wide selection of products or offer 'benign' or universal wrappers. Features of such wrappers should be whole of market fund choice, low and transparent charges and absence of, or insignificant, penalties.
Thorman added, "We believe an adviser should not be deemed independent if they use a platform for more than 20% of their business and that platform has neither 'benign universal wrappers' nor a sufficiently wide choice of third party products and wrappers."
Overall, Ascentric felt the FSA discussion paper for platforms was clear, helpful and pragmatic in its approach to complex issues, although the potential benefits of platforms in achieving the objectives of the FSA remain under-appreciated.
Thorman concluded, "It is the full engagement of customers in the holistic management of their long term savings which will have the greatest beneficial effect in forcing transparency, lower charges at given levels of service and improved outcomes at given levels of risk.
"Hopefully this will become increasingly evident to both the industry and regulators alike in the not too distant future."
FSA Discussion Paper 07/02
Platforms: the role of wraps and fund supermarkets
Response from Fundsdirect Ascentric
(Ascentric is the brand name given to the IFA Wrap service provided by Fundsdirect)
Overview
The discussion paper is clear, helpful and most importantly pragmatic in its approach to complex issues. It appears, however, that the potential benefits of platforms in achieving the objectives of the FSA remain under-appreciated. It is the full engagement of customers in the holistic management of their long term savings which will have the greatest beneficial effect in forcing transparency, lower charges at given levels of service and improved outcomes at given levels of risk. Hopefully this will become increasingly evident to both the industry and regulators alike in the not too distant future.
Responses
Q1 Do you believe that it would be desirable to have consistent terms for platforms with different characteristics? If so, how do you believe this could be achieved?
We believe it would be desirable to have consistent terminology for platforms. This does not necessarily have to be at the expense of identification of different characteristics. The difficulty in establishing agreement with several representative trade bodies and numerous platforms should not however be underestimated. The emergence of standardised terminology from initial confusion appears to be the normal process. This process is already evident. If this can be accelerated in a constructive way it would be helpful.
Q2 Do you believe a principles-based approach to platforms, without detailed rules or guidance, is appropriate?
Fundsdirect wholehearted support the concept of 'Principles based' regulation. In a complex and innovative industry attempts to legislate for every eventuality lead to unintended consequences - the most undesirable of which is the emergence of an industry segment dedicated to circumventing the rules.
A principles based approach, on the other hand, leaves the responsibility for standards and company behaviours squarely with management and fosters a culture based on challenge and informed consensus. This should result in a convergence of views of all stakeholders; customers, regulators, advisers and providers.
Q3 Do you believe that our Handbook makes it difficult for platform providers and intermediaries to focus on platform services, leaving behind traditional 'packaged' product structures? If so, how would you recommend we change our requirements?
We are content with this approach. A platform is a service supported by the regulatory principles. The bundling of charges into a product should result in an obligation to take additional care and provide additional disclosure.
Q4 To what extent (if any) can the adoption of platforms support a move away from up-front commission? Are there differences between fund supermarkets and wraps in this respect?
There is an implication that 'up-front' commission is inherently 'bad'. We cannot agree with this. It is the lack of discussion, obfuscation and cross subsidy often associated with the sale of packaged products which is unfair to customers. An explicit charge when deals are arranged by the adviser can be fair where the customer understands and agrees the level. This is wholly consistent with any other professional service. Clients do not necessarily expect the service to be paid for solely out of a future retainer. Platforms can increase the confidence of customers to understand and challenge these initial commissions due to regular use and growing familiarity.
In any case the growing use of platforms will result in lower initial commissions as packaged products, often with commissions of 6-7%, are replaced by fund sales where maximum commissions are usually 3% and increased customer engagement results in more informed customer challenge to their adviser.
Q5 Do you believe our approach to regulation should change at all, to assist firms that may want to use to use platforms to change their business models? If so, how?
The proposed FSA approach is pragmatic and fit for purpose. The 'principles' are clear for advisers. The FSA should continue to urge advisers and service providers to adopt more fully these principles and demonstrate their application to the adoption of platforms. Some explicit guidance may be required. For example there should be more discussion with clients about the total costs (and benefits) of the various platform options. The costs may be best demonstrated by the accepted Reduction In Yield calculation – probably best provided for industry agreed standard portfolios.
Q6 Do you agree that an intermediary's choice of which platforms to use should be driven by the types of customer it will serve and the nature of the service it wants to offer?
Neither Platforms nor customers are homogenous and some platforms will suit some customers better than others. This should be demonstrated. The comment in 4.25 is however dangerous. There is an implication that financial backing is vitally important to a platform's sustainability. In fact the platforms which have failed to date have all been supported by very well financed institutions! Clearly the analysis needs to be more extensive requiring, for example, an assessment of commitment of the owners as much as their financial standing.
Q7 Do you believe that the information firms need to undertake 'due diligence' of platforms could be made more accessible?
Yes the availability of a standardised pack would be of value to this assessment.
Q8 Do you agree that it is important that firms assess whether platforms are suitable for individual customers? In practice, how might this be achieved?
Yes a standardised appropriateness analysis should be undertaken for each customer. This does not need to be onerous but rather sufficient to highlight to the adviser where there is a risk of square pegs being aimed at round holes!
Q9 Do you agree with our position on ongoing services and remuneration (see paragraphs 5.10 t0 5.14)?
A major benefit of platforms should be the ability for customers both to see readily any ongoing charge or commission and to challenge advisers on what is being received in exchange. Usually with traditional packaged products this is made complex and /or is hidden thus hindering an open discussion and preventing increased customer engagement.
Q10 We require firms to explain the overall costs of products and services, including the cost of services delivered through platforms. How do you think this is best achieved?
Customer Terms and Conditions should be clear and explicit about charges for platforms and the related services of fund management, product wrappers and advice. This could also be demonstrated most effectively using the accepted Reduction in Yield model for industry agreed standardised portfolios.
Q11 Do you feel there are conflicts of interest between a firm and its advisers that need to be managed and if so, what are they?
There is the possibility of conflict between adviser and platform:
• Where the platform is not the most suitable for an adviser's individual clients
• Where the firm has a conflict of interest in selection of platform which the adviser does not share
• Where the alternatives to a platform selected by the firm are restricted
Exceptions require disclosure by the individual/firm in the suitability letter. Ultimately where the conflicts cease to be exceptions the firm must be required to select a new platform. One would expect this to be the result of a regular review of platform suitability as suggested in this paper.
Q12 Are there regulatory or practical problems with any of the ways of providing whole of market advice we have described? Are there other ways of delivering whole of market advice when using platforms?
We believe the discussion in the document in section 6 is comprehensive. The concept of independence should remain undiluted in terms of 'whole of market' and the offering of a fee option to clients. The exception to the sanctity of independence, introduced in the document, of a 'benign' wrapper is understandable. A concern must remain on what is sufficiently 'benign'. The FSA should be looking particularly at charges, transparency and absence or insignificant penalties. Any platform wishing to benefit from this relaxation should demonstrate adequately these features.
Q13 Do you believe that platform providers can or should be encouraged to offer access to more universally suitable products that could then be considered purely as 'wrapper'? What characteristics do you think pensions and life products would need to be considered as 'wrappers'?
Platform providers should offer access to a sufficiently wide selection of products or offer 'benign' or universal wrappers. Features of such wrappers should be whole of market fund choice, low and transparent charges and absence of, or insignificant, penalties.
Q14 Do you believe we need to take account of advisers' use of platforms in considering any changes to the conditions for adviser independence? If so, why?
An adviser should not be deemed independent if he uses a platform for more than 20% of his business and the platform has neither 'benign universal wrappers' nor a sufficiently wide choice of third party products and wrappers.
Q15 Do you believe that platform providers should take steps to make sure that – where possible – a customer can remove their assets from a platform without having to encash them?
Yes platforms should offer re-registration. If not there is risk of being out of the market while a fund is encashed and before funds are re-purchased. This requirement is even greater if there are additional costs in re-investing. Where a client is forced to do this there is an evident inconsistency with 'treating customers fairly.'
Q16 Do you agree with our analysis in the table in Annex 1 of different situations in which 'in specie' transfer could be facilitated?
Yes
Q17 Do you believe our requirements on inducements and commission disclosure are appropriate and relevant for platform providers and users?
Yes it is essential that there is a level playing field between platform models and transparency and disclosure of charging in all cases. The list in 8.17 is not easy to understand readily but appears to be exhaustive.
Funds on the Ascentric Wrap platform have now reached £175 million - up £75 million in less than three months. The Ascentric Wrap was only launched to the whole IFA market in January this year.
Hugo Thorman, Chief Executive of Ascentric said, "It was only in August when we announced the milestone of £100 million and this growth reflects both the interest in the Ascentric proposition and the IFAs desire and support for wraps."
"From a standing start, the Ascentric Wrap has to be the fastest growing wrap or fundsupermarket platform in the UK ever."
The Ascentric Wrap proposition is especially appealing to High Net Worth adviser firms with High Net Worth clients. They are both attracted by the low and transparent charges and the open architecture for both funds and products.
In addition to over 110 fund managers and 1,700 funds, the Ascentric Platform provides "Whole of Market" access to numerous financial products from a range of providers and tax wrappers including PEP, ISA, SIPP, SSAS and Offshore Bonds.
For further information contact:
Hugo Thorman on 0207 553 9158 / 07710 877 998 or hugo.thorman@ascentric.co.uk
Ascentric announces that funds on its Wrap platform have now exceeded £100 million - a very rapid take up by IFAs and their clients as Ascentric only launched to the whole IFA market in January.
This milestone makes it a double century celebration for Ascentric as last week it announced that over 100 advisers had signed up to use its Wrap platform.
Hugo Thorman, managing director of Ascentric said, "Our IFA Wrap proposition is about 50% ahead of our business plan which is fantastic progress. The Ascentric Wrap proposition is especially appealing to High Net Worth adviser firms with High Net Worth clients. They are both attracted by the low and transparent charges and the open architecture for both funds and products."
There are now 92 fund managers offering 1,682 funds through the Ascentric Wrap platform - one of the most extensive list of funds provided by any platform in the UK.
In addition, the Ascentric Platform provides "Whole of Market" access to numerous financial products from a range of providers and tax wrappers including PEP, ISA, SIPP, SSAS and Offshore Bonds.
The Platform can also form the basis for regular client reporting enabling advisers to generate annuity income in the form of Wrap fees based on total assets held within the Wrap account.
For further information contact:
Hugo Thorman on 0207 553 9158 / 07710 877 998 or hugo.thorman@ascentric.co.uk
Over 100 advisers from 35 firms are now signed up with the Ascentric Wrap. This is an increase on the 60 advisers from 22 firms announced only in March this year, proving the Ascentric Wrap continues to attract huge interest and support from IFAs.
The platform accepts any fund link as long as there is a Financial Express price feed and an ISIN identifier - currently agreements exist with over 100 fund managers.
IFA firms signing up to the Ascentric Wrap include Barmac Asset Management, Church Hill Finance, Edison Wealth Management, Financial Minefield Gold Alliance (UK), Holland Hahn & Wills, Independent Wealth Management Consultants, MDH Hughes, Prime Solutions Financial Management, Vintage Asset Management and Wealth Port.
Hugo Thorman, managing director of Ascentric said: "The Ascentric proposition continues to attract top quality clients from top quality IFA firms. The combination of low charges and open architecture for both funds and products is the key to our success."
For further information contact:
Hugo Thorman on 0207 553 9158 / 07710 877 998 or hugo.thorman@ascentric.co.uk
The Ascentric Wrap continues to outstrip both its business plan and all expectations. Since opening to the whole IFA market in January this year, the platform has now exceeded £50 million in assets, with 27 IFA firms and over 100 advisers using the wrap service.
Hugo Thorman Managing Director of Ascentric said, "The main interest in Ascentric stems from our deliberate strategy to provide access to third party products and any fund within the Wrap."
Recent additions to Ascentrics product partners include the Friends Provident International Offshore Bond, the Suffolk Life SIPP and the IPM SIPP - making 3 offshore Bonds and 10 SIPP partners with more in discussions.
Thorman added, "IFAs love the fact that they do not have to change their existing relationships and revisit their selection of chosen bond and pension provider."
For further information contact:
Hugo Thorman on 0207 553 9158 / 07710 877 998 or hugo.thorman@ascentric.co.uk
The successful Hargreaves Lansdown business model which is effectively a wrap is one IFAs should seriously follow if they wish to protect their client base and prove they can build a real tangible value in their business, believes Hugo Thorman, Managing Director of Fundsdirect Ascentric.
"IFAs who do not adopt wraps, and provide their clients with the corresponding high levels of service, risk losing them to those IFAs, such as Hargreaves Lansdown who have their own wrap service offered directly to clients."
Thormans view follows the news that the company is to list on the Stock Exchange, with a suggested value of 600m. "This has substantial implications for the whole IFA industry as their Hargreaves Lansdown Vantage wrap service accounts for the vast majority of their 8.3 billion of assets under management, 24 million annual profits and PE of about 38 - all very impressive numbers.
"What is interesting is that the present value of future earnings of such a business is supported by impressive past and prospective growth”, Thorman added. “And even more impressive is the quality of those earnings with 67% recurring income and client loyalty levels beyond anything that former models have ever been close to achieving.
"Hargreaves Lansdown has clearly shown that an IFA using wraps can build a real value in their business and deliver client service at the right price – so there is no reason why the rest of the industry cannot do the same. If they ignore wraps then IFAs risk losing clients.
"The lesson and ultimate rewards for IFAs using a wrap service will be much higher levels of client satisfaction and engagement, and concurrently a more stable, profitable and sustainable advice sector.
"Advisers using wrap platforms, such as the Ascentric Wrap, can deliver the same high quality holistic service at a price to compete - certainly for larger clients where the advantages of personal financial advice can really be appreciated and for which a premium can be easily justified.
"The industry is already adopting wraps at a growing rate and current funds in wrap and fund supermarkets are reckoned to be about 40bn. The potential pension funds, ISAs, PEPs, Life Bonds and unwrapped funds and equities which could be wrapped has been estimated at 50% of total Personal Sector Financial Assets at a huge 1800bn."
For further information contact:
Hugo Thorman on 0207 553 9158 / 07710 877 998 or hugo.thorman@ascentric.co.uk
The Ascentric Wrap platform has reported a dramatic expansion in Fund choice following requests from IFAs. Since the Ascentric Wrap service was launched to founding IFAs in August 2006, 35 additional fund managers have been added with a total of 350 extra funds.
The Ascentric Wrap now offers some 80 fund managers and over 1500 funds. New managers include: Glanmore, Thames River, Matrix, BDT, Miton, Close, Seilern, Quadris, Bedlam, Aras, Glasgow IM, Troy, Frontier and Margetts.
And among the extra new funds are Matrix Max and Horizon (both fund of hedge funds), Thames River Warrior (multimanager absolute return) Quadris (environmental investments), and Glanmore Property Fund.
Hugo Thorman, Managing Director of Fundsdirect Ascentric said, "The variety of funds demanded by the IFAs has surprised us. Getting an agreement in place with fund managers is not a trivial task but if advisers and clients want access to these funds a wrap proposition has to respond.
"The type of fund now stretches way beyond active equity and bond with a proliferation of property, absolute return and hedge fund, specialist assets such as forestry and ground rents. What it does show is that a growing number of clients are getting access to a more sophisticated and diversified investment choice which has to be good news."
For further information contact:
Hugo Thorman on 0207 553 9158 / 07710 877 998 or hugo.thorman@ascentric.co.uk
Over 60 advisers from 22 firms are now signed up with the Ascentric Wrap. Since its launch to the whole market in January, the Ascentric Wrap has attracted huge interest and support from IFAs.
The independent platform has appealed especially to High Net Worth advisers and their clients largely because of the charging structure but also because of its independent stance and "whole of market" service.
The platform accepts any fund link as long as there is a Financial Express price feed and an ISIN identifier - currently agreements exist with over 100 fund managers. IFA Firms signing up include: Evolve Financial Planning, London; Filip Slipaczek IFA, London; Pension Rescue (Park Row), Carlisle; Stafford & Co, Hertford; Brook Dobson Brear, Harrogate; WKH Financial Services, Baldock and TBO, York.
Hugo Thorman Managing Director of Ascentric said, "Support from advisers has exceeded our expectations. Fortunately the high level of automation has helped us deal with the volumes. Advisers have been demanding access to an increasingly wide range of boutique funds and this feature is essential to a successful Wrap proposition."
The Ascentric Wrap is an independent asset consolidation service available exclusively to IFAs offering fully integrated online viewing and dealing facilities using the Fundsdirect platform, the UKs first and independent fund supermarket.
For further information contact:
Hugo Thorman on 0207 553 9158 or hugo.thorman@ascentric.co.uk
Fundsdirect announced today the successful launch of its Ascentric IFA Wrap service to Founding IFAs on the new blue-button system from Investment Sciences. The new software supports all the existing customers of Fundsdirect including direct clients and White Label business. All client records have been successfully transferred so that all dealing, reconciliation, valuations and viewing is now performed by the blue-button system. Existing and all future propositions offered by Fundsdirect will now utilise this platform.
Ascentric is the first IFA owned and directed Wrap service in the UK. The seven founding IFAs, who account for £1.35bn of assets, have contributed substantially to the specification of the proposition. The major attractions of the Ascentric Wrap are its independence from any product provider or fund manager and the fact that the products of any SIPP or Offshore Bond provider can be supported. All IFA users will also benefit from equity participation through a share option scheme.
Malcolm Coury, Managing Director of Money Wise IFA Ltd and Chairman of the Ascentric Wrap User Group said: The IFA community has always wanted a Wrap which is independent of product providers and allows us to share in the long term value attributable to managing client assets. It is vitally important to IFAs these days that their direction is not dictated to or unduly influenced by the big providers. As Founding IFAs, we are therefore very proud to be involved with launching the UKs first truly independent and IFA-led Wrap service.
Hugo Thorman, Managing Director of Fundsdirect, said: The implementation of this platform means that we are now dramatically more automated and, I believe, more scaleable than any other in the market. Fundsdirect is now equipped for substantial growth and blue-button gives us the capacity to serve the massive interest we have had in the Ascentric Wrap and White Label administration services. Our founding IFAs can therefore transfer business as rapidly as they wish to so that we can gain experience in preparation for the open launch of the Ascentric service in the autumn to the whole IFA community. We already have over 70 IFA firms registered and ready to do business.
For further information contact:
Hugo Thorman on 0207 553 9158 / 07710 877 998 or hugo.thorman@ascentric.co.uk
Morningstar, a leading provider of independent investment research, today announced it has
entered into an agreement with Fundsdirect to provide its newest product, Proposal Generator, in
addition to Morningstars Quickrank, Quicktake, Fund Selector, Instant X-ray and Portfolio
Tools for Fundsdirects new Ascentric IFA Wrap proposition. Morningstar expects to integrate its
tools into Ascentrics operations in May 2006.
Ascentric is the new independent asset consolidation service for independent financial advisers
being launched in May by Fundsdirect. The new platform offers full Wrap functionality
including all wrappers (SIPP, ISA, PEP and Offshore Bond) and investments including cash and
1400 funds. Morningstar will add equity data in May.
Proposal Generator is a front-end investment planning tool designed to meet the needs of
financial advisers. The intuitive tool enables an adviser to create a proposal for a specific
investment goal and to manage and review the clients progress toward that goal on an ongoing
basis. It leverages Morningstars renowned capabilities such as investment research, risk and needs
assessment, asset allocation methodologies and portfolio construction, analysis and management.
Proposal Generator is a front-end investment planning tool designed to meet the needs of
financial advisers. The intuitive tool enables an adviser to create a proposal for a specific
investment goal and to manage and review the clients progress toward that goal on an ongoing
basis. It leverages Morningstars renowned capabilities such as investment research, risk and needs
assessment, asset allocation methodologies and portfolio construction, analysis and management.
"Our goal in developing Proposal Generator is to make the IFAs life easier so they can spend
more time helping investors," said Joe Grause, CEO of Morningstar UK and Morningstar
France. "Proposal Generator provides Morningstar data and state-of-the-art investment modeling
methodology in a simple yet functional structure, saving the IFA time that can be better spent
with his or her clients."
"We are delighted to have this relationship with a leading investment research firm and tools
provider like Morningstar," said Hugo Thorman, Managing Director of Fundsdirect. "The
integration of one set of tools to cover all of an IFAs modeling needs was a key objective for us.
This service will be free to IFA users of the Ascentric Wrap platform."
For further information contact:
Joe Grause on +44 (0)20 3107 0121 or joe.grause@morningstar.com
Fundsdirect will launch a full wrap Platform to their Founding IFAs in March. The Platform will offer Mutual Funds and cash immediately while equities will be added by June. The fund range is expected to offer all major fund managers with as many as 1400 funds and 80 managers.
Products on the Ascentric Platform will include ISAs, PEPs, SIPPs, Offshore Bonds and an unwrapped Investment Account. Fundsdirect is the PEP and ISA manager. SIPPs will be offered by Hornbuckle Mitchell and Wolanski. Offshore Bond partners include Axa International, Friends Provident International and Scottish Equitable International. Ascentric is in discussions with further SIPP and Offshore Bond providers.
Charges for the service are very competitive: 0.25% of the fund with a minimum of £300 per annum. There is a dealing charge of £12.50. All fund manager rebates are passed to the client account. This charge is significantly better value than current Wrap offerings.
Initially the Ascentric Wrap Service will only be available to Founding IFAs. These include Moneywise, Kings Court Financial Planning, Grosvenor Consultancy, Vintage Financial, Cartlidge Morland and Calkin Pattinson. These firms account for about £1bn in client funds.
The business will be largely owned by IFAs and is wholly independent of any product provider.
Hugo Thorman, Managing Director of Fundsdirect and Ascentric said "the integration of the "Bluebutton" system into Fundsdirect has gone extremely well - we now have automated EMX trading and full IFA commission flexibility and thats on top of the fully integrated funds and equity dealing, settlement and cash reconciliation on-line that we already had. We should be launching fully to the market in May or June this year. I would expect the proposition to appeal especially to Wealth Management IFAs who want to have all their clients financial affairs in one place but have access to all investment options and products at the right price."
For further information contact:
Clive Boothman on 07884 313376 or clive.boothman@ascentric.co.uk
Hugo Thorman on 0207 553 9158 / 07710 877 998 or hugo.thorman@ascentric.co.uk
Ascentric today announced the purchase of FundsDirect (Investment Funds Direct Limited). In 1999 FundsDirect was the first online web-based fund supermarket to be set up in the UK and now offers 1,500 funds from 80 managers. Currently the business is focussed primarily on the B2C (direct to consumer) market but also has some important third party service contracts.
Ascentric is a new business founded by IFAs for IFAs with a key objective of remaining independent of product provider influence and ownership. The intention is to launch a full ‘wrap’ to IFAs within 9 months of completion of the purchase using a new system which will be installed in FundsDirect.
This system was selected after exhaustive research of the market by the IFA team as a proven platform to suit their business needs rather than those of the product provider. It was built by Investment Sciences Limited, who are already well known for their work with IFAs and other platform providers. Very little further development is needed as the system is already fully functional across all asset classes, supports the major investment wrappers and is web-enabled.
Clive Boothman, Chairman of Ascentric said: "This is the perfect complement to our already comprehensive business plan for Ascentric. The purchase of FundsDirect gives us a fast start, enabling us to use FundsDirect’s existing fund management contracts, regulatory authorisation and infrastructure. With new systems able to support the breadth and depth of a full wrap offering, we believe this service will be precisely what IFAs have been looking for. We are setting aside a substantial share in the equity of the business for IFAs who place assets on the platform which should make it doubly attractive to them."
Simon Bratt, outgoing CEO of FundsDirect said: "We are delighted to have found a purchaser to take the business forwards and provide continuity for clients and staff. We wish Clive and his team every success with their plans to expand the business."
Completion of the acquisition remains subject to FSA approval.
For further information contact:
Clive Boothman on 07884 313376 or clive.boothman@ascentric.co.uk
Hugo Thorman on 0207 553 9158 / 07710 877 998 or hugo.thorman@ascentric.co.uk
Ascentric is pleased to announce the appointment of Hugo Thorman as Managing Director. Hugo was previously director of Intermediary Services at Abbey and chairman of James Hay. He was responsible for the introduction of the Abby wrap and brings a wealth of experience to the Ascentric business.
Ascentric is a new business founded by IFAs for IFAs with a key objective of remaining independent of product provider influence and ownership. The intention is to launch a full "wrap" service to IFAs and to enable IFAs to realise a share of the intrinsic value by setting aside a substantial share in the equity of the business for IFAs who place assets on the platform.
Clive Boothman, Chairman of Ascentric said: "We are very pleased that Hugo has accepted this appointment as he brings a wealth of experience of this market to our business. His knowledge of previously establishing a wrap service will be invaluable. We welcome him on board and expect his contribution will enable us to announce significant further progress with the Ascentric service shortly."
Hugo Thorman, the new Managing Director of Ascentric said: "The Ascentric plan to establish an independent, IFA led, service will create significant momentum in the use of wrap services in the UK. It will completely change the structure of the current financial services market and re-align the value chain in favour of IFAs and their clients. I am therefore very pleased to accept such a key role for this important IFA led initiative."
For further information contact:
Clive Boothman on 07884 313376 or clive.boothman@ascentric.co.uk
Ascentric is pleased to announce the appointment of Clive Boothman as Non-Executive Chairman. Clive is well known in the investment industry having been CEO of Cofunds and former chairman of AUTIF. He was also previously Managing Director of Schroders Unit Trusts and MD of Gerrards.
Ascentric is a new business founded by IFAs to provide an independent wrap service for IFAs. The intention is to launch a full "wrap" and to enable IFAs to realise a share of the intrinsic value by setting aside a substantial share in the equity of the business for IFAs who place assets on the platform.
Malcolm Coury, IFA Director of Ascentric said: "Clive Boothmans experience at a senior level on both sides of the financial services industry will be invaluable to Ascentric and a significant further step towards the establishment of an independent wrap service for IFAs. Our objective now is to complete the management team and secure the investment required to launch the service. Clives appointment will give us considerable thrust toward achieving both these tasks as well as providing a guiding hand for the business in the future."
Clive Boothman, the new Chairman of Ascentric said: "I am very pleased to accept this appointment as the proposed Ascentric service is exactly what the UK financial services market needs. An independent wrap platform will improve choice, reduce costs and greatly improve client service. Both the IFAs and the clients will therefore benefit from the Ascentric service."
Michael Fordham, Managing Director of
Investment Sciences Limited said: "We are very pleased that the
blue-button system was selected for this important new market
service. Investment Sciences recognise the significance of the
Ascentric initiative and it intends to be an effective partner
for the new wrap service and its IFA users."
For further information contact:
Clive Boothman on 07884 313376 or clive.boothman@ascentric.co.uk
Malcolm Coury on 01225 471100 or malcolm.coury@ascentric.co.uk
Ascentric, the new independent wrap service for IFAs, today announced the selection of Investment Sciences wealth management system, blue-button WM, to provide a comprehensive platform for the new service.
Ascentric is a new business founded by IFAs to provide an independent wrap service for IFAs. The intention is to launch a full "wrap" and to enable IFAs to realise a share of the intrinsic value by setting aside a substantial share in the equity of the business for IFAs who place assets on the platform.
The blue-button system was selected after exhaustive research of the market by the IFA team as a proven platform to suit their business needs rather than those of the product providers. It is a modern and highly automated system capable of supporting a comprehensive and efficient service. The system was built by Investment Sciences Limited, who are already well known for their work with IFAs and other platform providers. Very little further development is needed as the system is already fully functional across all asset classes, supports the major investment wrappers and is web-enabled.
Malcolm Coury, IFA Director of Ascentric said: "Investment Sciences have been very supportive to our IFA wrap initiative and have shown a good understanding of our requirements. We are therefore pleased to confirm the selection of the blue-button system for Ascentric as we feel confident it will provide us with the platform we need."
Michael Fordham, Managing Director of Investment Sciences Limited said: "We are very pleased that the blue-button system was selected for this important new market service. Investment Sciences recognise the significance of the Ascentric initiative and it intends to be an effective partner for the new wrap service and its IFA users."
For further information contact:
Malcolm Coury on 01225 471100 or malcolm.coury@ascentric.co.uk
Hugo Thorman on 0207 553 9158 / 07710 877 998 or hugo.thorman@ascentric.co.uk
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