Industry trio launches retail distribution group

FormerAMP Henderson Global Investors head of retail distribution Krystyna Weston has announced her return to financial services by teaming up with consultants Tom Collins and Sarah Brennan to form an independent retail distribution group labelled The Private Collection (TPC).

Weston, who is chief executive of TPC, says the group will offer marketing services to boutique, institutional and international fund managers, which do not have a retail presence in the Australian market, through TPC’s own team of business development managers (BDMs).

The BDMs will be based out of Melbourne and Sydney and offer distribution and marketing services for all managers who sign with the group into the retail and platform markets, with Weston stating the managers would be complementary but would not be in direct competition with each other.

The three partners also co-own the group, with Brennan and Collins acting as non-executive directors and having no daily involvement with the work of the group unless specifically requested by Weston.

Lazard Asset Managementmanaging director Rob Prugue was also involved in the formation of the group, which has led to Lazard signing on as a foundation member alongside Westpoint.

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Using the resources of TPC, Lazard is set to offer its Australian equities fund via master trusts and Westpoint will offer a structured fixed interest product to the retail market, with Prugue saying this step will be a primary push into retail for his group.

“This is part of the push to retailisation and answers the question of how we promote our Australian equities product in the retail space,” Prugue says.

Fund managers using the service will be charged under a flat and basis point fee model, with a maximum of five managers to be signed up to the service in the first year.

Weston says the cap on managers will allow the BDMs to fully represent the managers to planners but the group would look at other managers in the future as the business grows.

However, TPC has requested that managers which are interested in using the group have a commitment to the local retail market, have or are to receive research house ratings, and hold a funds under management figure in the hundreds of millions.