ING back-to-basics with OneAnswer

By George Liondis

Theback-to-basics push in Australia’s master trust industry is set to continue with the launch last week by ING Australia of its OneAnswer platform.

Like Colonial First State before it, which released its FirstChoice platform in May, ING launched OneAnswer with a call for simpler, less expensive master trust solutions for financial advisers.

ING executive director Ross Bowden says OneAnswer will not look to offer the unlimited investment and reporting options of other more complex investment platforms.

“Many investors don’t require the unlimited investment choice and comprehensive consolidated reporting of a wrap account. In the current climate of low returns, investors are focusing on fees and are looking closely at value,” he says.

“With OneAnswer, advisers are able to show their clients they are addressing concerns about fees by providing a package of funds that offer choice and that are very competitively priced.”

Through OneAnswer, investors will have access to ING’s Personal Super and Allocated Pension suite of products, as well as to the group’s new non-super product range, dubbed Investment Portfolio.

Investment Portfolio, like the Personal Super and Allocated Pension suite, includes a series of ING investment options, as well as funds from a range of other fund managers.

Bowden says OneAnswer’s back-to-basics philosophy was strongly influenced by feedback from financial advisers.

“Our feedback from advisers is that many of their customers want simple products that offer limited diversification among a small number of well-known managers,” he says.