BTFM looks to parent to expand super operation
With the marriage of BT and Principal now guaranteeing the continuing presence of the name in the marketplace, BT are hoping to leverage off their parents' exper-tise in superannuation services with the addition of Dan McGee to BT Funds Man-agement (BTFM) corporate investments services team.
With the marriage of BT and Principal now guaranteeing the continuing presence of the name in the marketplace, BT are hoping to leverage off their parents' exper-tise in superannuation services with the addition of Dan McGee to BT Funds Man-agement (BTFM) corporate investments services team.
The addition of McGee is indicative of BTFM's focus on the master trust market and will see him concentrate on expanding the role of financial planners as a distri-bution channel for master trust products.
McGee has been with the Principal Financial Group for eight years and involved in the sale of 401(k) and pension plans as regional sales vice president, overseeing 15 sales offices.
The move of McGee into the Australian operation was driven by Carey Jury, ex-ecutive vice president for BT Funds Management, and previously based with Prin-cipal in the US as vice president group operations and now heading up corporate super and master trusts in the local market.
Jury says his role was to put together an entrance strategy for Principal with an emphasis on retirement services and institutional asset management and the need for staff from the parent company was part of that.
"It is a two to three year assignment and we are aiming to bring the synergies be-tween the two groups together in the areas of marketing and distribution of these products," Jury says.
At the end of 1999 corporate super and master trust assets under management had broken the $500 million mark with 1600 employer clients and 45,000 employee members.
While Jury is happy with this figure he says there is room to improve and a vigor-ous effort to lift the numbers is underway.
"We started in September last year and have expanded our focus with the addition of business development managers in each of the states. Our target is to be in the top five by market share by 2004 up from 16th at present."
AUTHOR
Jason Spits
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