Aussie wrap first for UK market
A Melbourne e-commerce company has launched what is believed to be the UK’s first wrap account and signed up 15 dealer groups to use the new service.
A Melbourne e-commerce company has launched what is believed to be the UK’s first wrap account and signed up 15 dealer groups to use the new service.
ObjectMastery has launched its integrated portfolio service, called Transact, through the company’s London-based subsidiary, Integrated Financial Arrangements (IntegraFin).
Transact allows investors access to managed funds from a wide range of leading UK fund managers, together with stocks and gilts dealt on the London Stock Exchange.
The managers include ABN AMRO, Cazenove, Gartmore, Perpetual and Stewart Ivory (recently acquired by Colonial).
These investments can be held directly, in a general investment account, or in a tax-advantage structure such as an ISA or PEP. A range of pensions on Transact is to be introduced next month, with banking and insurance to follow later.
All reporting is consolidated and transactions, reporting and information can be initiated and viewed online.
According to ObjectMastery general manager Ian Craig, Transact has the potential to reshape the way UK financial advisers do business.
“The UK is quite a challenge as consolidation services such as master trusts and wraps are almost unknown,” he says.
“This area of the market is about to start moving, with Norwich taking Navigator to Europe and some of the South African houses starting to look there too, so getting into the market before them is an important step.”
Craig says the UK move is the logical step as the Australia is saturated with such services.
“The UK market is like Australia was in 1988. There is only one competitor,” he says.
The competitor is the Swedish company, Skandia, which has more than $2.5 billion under administration.
Craig say Objectmastery did look at the US before settling on Europe, but abandoned the idea due to the complexity of the different state laws. “The UK was one regulatory system,” he says.
The 15 groups with which IntegraFin has signed agreements have more than 200 advisers and have in excess of $1 billion of funds under administration.
Craig says the UK company is talking to several groups about providing them with their own branded version of Transact.
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