Navigator reduces fees after system savings

Platform providerNavigatorhas moved to pass on savings from its core platform product in the market being more stable, by reducing the fees it charges, particularly to clients with large account balances.

Navigator chief executive Allan Griffiths says the group replaced its core system two years ago, and while it had problems in its early days was now stable, enabling the business to achieve savings due to the technology.

Many of the problems surrounded the use of planning software, PlanIt, provided by Navigator and designed to work in conjunction with the platform. However the software was eventually withdrawn from use in February 2002 and rewritten with the first revised module rolled out in October last year.

The changes to fees include reductions in discount thresholds from $400,000 and $800,000 to $300,000 and $600,000 respectively, discounts for the group’s Personal Retirement Plan, and reduced fees for balances over $1 million.

“While it is good to improve our terms for new investors, the real win comes from reducing fees to existing clients which is not always the case in this industry,” Griffiths says.

In addition to the fee reductions, Griffiths says Navigator has recently been reviewing the marketplace for strategic alliance partners to expand its existing distribution capabilities.

Griffiths says Navigator is looking in particular at groups such as second tier banks, who do not want to spend vast amounts of money to run a platform but instead would like to outsource the function.

“It follows on from the building of the new system. We have spent all this money on it and have surplus capacity, so are looking for those groups who want to use that,” he says.

Griffiths says that at present Navigator is in discussions with nine organisations, and that within the next six months at least some of them will be on board.

“From the discussions with potential alliance partners, we know that the independence of the Navigator platform and its high level of functionality are the key motivations for building a relationship with us,” he says.

Griffiths expects this independence to benefit the group in the near future, as he says the industry has already started to fragment and would continue to do so, the reverse of the wave of consolidation over recent years.