The Rask Group, in partnership with InvestSMART’s new investment platform, has announced three exchange-traded fund (ETF) strategies.
Early last month, InvestSMART launched its own white label online investing platform as it positioned the business to be a leading digital wealth and advice platform.
It appointed Rask Group as the external investment manager. Under the arrangement, clients will have their funds professionally managed by Rask Invest in one of three Rask investment portfolios within the InvestSMART professionally managed accounts. InvestSMART will then provide the back-end administrative, compliance and technology platform.
On 15 April, the platform announced it had launched and funded their first investment strategies under the InvestSMART white label.
Rask Invest will initially offer three ETFs on the InvestSMART platform: passive income, growth and high growth. According to the firm, the portfolios have a waiting list of more than 600 investors.
Commenting on the announcement, Ron Hodge, InvestSMART chief executive, said: “The platform is not just a rebrand of InvestSMART portfolios. Our aim is to empower advisers, stockbrokers and financial institutions to create and manage their own ETF portfolios, using InvestSMART’s technology for compliance, trading and administration.”
The CEO added that the portfolios mark a “further step” in democratising retail investors’ access to professionally managed investment portfolios, describing it as “robo advice 2.0”.
Hodge continued: “With 49 per cent of investors aged between 25 and 49 years old, there is a broad demographic who either can’t afford professional advice, or don’t see the value in it, but should have some of their investments professionally managed.
“Wealth management is changing. Firms need to innovate with technology to ensure they capture the trust and imagination of future investing generations.”
Breaking down the platform’s features, it enables advisers and brokers to create and manage their own ETF portfolios, while giving investors full legal ownership of the underlying assets.
Owen Rask, founder and chief investment officer at the Rask Group, remarked: “While it is early days, we’re really excited by the initial traction, which has reinforced the InvestSMART and Rask proposition that can be leveraged by all types of investors.
“Given the transparency, security of assets held on holder identification number and scaleability, so far it is proving very popular with direct investors via their self-managed super fund, family trusts or even kids accounts.”
Rask said the company has been engaging with advisers who are eager to outsource certain clients to an investment partner which can automate the client’s investment experience.
