Australian investors are increasingly turning to the internet to buy managed funds according to head of the National Australia Bank (NAB) owned on-line investing service, Your Prosperity, John Reid.
Australian investors are increasingly turning to the internet to buy managed funds according to head of the National Australia Bank (NAB) owned on-line investing service, Your Prosperity, John Reid.
Reid says Your Prosperity has seen a surge in members using its on-line service to buy and sell managed funds in recent months indicating a growing sophistication in the market.
He says since the service began early this year total funds invested through Your Prosperity have grown to $50 million, with $10 million flowing through in August alone.
“We are particularly pleased that all our services, shares and managed funds, su-perannuation and portfolio management, are appealing to the marketplace and that growth has been sustained for several months,” Reid says.
Your Prosperity has about 3000 members using its managed fund service and Reid says the potential to grow that market is enormous.
“Our target market is the more self-directed investor who don’t want to use an ad-viser or those who will pay a fee for advice but want to invest themselves.”
Reid says while the growth in Your Prosperity’s membership has been “exciting” the company needs to be a significant player to survive.
“We want to be many, many times larger,” Reid says.
“There are major opportunities out there at the moment but we must act soon to take advantage of them.”
He says one possibility is using the huge NAB customer base to expand the Your Prosperity business.
“We have hopes of marketing to the NAB customer base but there are still integra-tion issues between MLC and NAB,” Reid says.
Your Prosperity, a former MLC company, was included in the recent NAB take-over deal.
In the interim, Reid says, the company will focus on perfecting its existing serv-ices.
“We have the products now its time to make them work.”
