UK firms warm to SMARTfund
Australian portfolio administration service provider Praemium has strengthened its presence in the UK market by signing up three UK financial planning firms to its SMARTfund offering.
The firms — Foster Denovo, Informed Financial Planning and Radcliffe & Newlands — have signed ‘letters of engagement’ with Praemium to set-up their own SMARTfunds.
SMARTfunds are a UK adaptation of separately managed accounts (SMA). Under the agreement, SMARTfunds will enable the signatory firms to launch their own branded SMARTfunds and/or to use Praemium’s own range of SMARTfunds. There are currently five risk-based fund of fund portfolios in the UK market under the SMARTfund brand.
In making the announcement, Praemium managing director Arthur Naoumidis said the three firms signing up to launch Praemium’s UK SMARTfund “demonstrates the ongoing appetite in the UK market for adviser-sponsored funds and the appeal of the unique SMARTfund structure to meet this need”.
Recommended for you
A quarter of advisers who commenced on the FAR within the last two years have already switched licensees or practices, adding validity to practice owners’ professional year (PY) concerns.
Integrated wealth and financial services group Rethink has launched a financial planning arm called Rethink Wealth to expand beyond property investing and into holistic wealth management.
While adviser numbers continue to slowly creep back up, the latest Wealth Data analysis reveals they would actually be in the green for the calendar year if it weren’t for so many losses in the limited advice space.
Iress has appointed a chief AI officer to spearhead the fintech’s strategic focus on AI, with chief executive Marcus Price describing how the technology opens the doors to a “new frontier for wealth advice”.