Mercer signs Asgard back office
William M Mercer has signed Sealcorp to provide the back office administration for its new portfolio management service.
William M Mercer has signed Sealcorp to provide the back office administration for its new portfolio management service.
Under the deal, Sealcorp's Private Label Service, a subsidiary of the Asgard master trust business, will provide the administration for the new Mercer Portfolio Service master trust which is aimed at retail financial planning clients.
The trust will be launched later this year and is expected to attract more than $1 billion in funds under administration within a two year period.
The structure of the new offering from Mercer will deliver access to portfolio de-tails and allow clients to change their investment portfolio as needs change.
Sealcorp associate director Wes Gillett says the move into providing the wholesale back office administration was an important part of the growth for Asgard which has already assumed a comfortable position in retail services.
"We plan to make this a substantial portion of our business in the next three years as part of an overall wholesale thrust in response to growth in groups seeking ad-ministration outsourcing on our back office structure," Gillett says.
"It should be a significant revenue component, making up to 25 or 30 per cent of the total funds under management in that time period, which equates to the better part of $5 billion."
The new agreement was further proof that the group had taken a dominant position in the relatively new area of providing master fund administration services, Gillett says.
"There is a lot of branding going on within the wholesale sector but in terms of building a tailored service from the ground up, we are the main players," he says.
"At present we have four private label services - Mercer, SunCorp Metway, Hill-ross and Beacon, while most others tend to have one or two at most."
The Private Label service currently is divided into two categories: investor discre-tionary and model choice with the latter using a fund of funds style with clients picking investment options and managers to suit each option.
The investor discretionary approach provides administration and reporting based on selected investment products chosen from a list with assistance from a financial planner.
AUTHOR
Jason Spits
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