AXA defends dealer group research, APL integrity

AXA has defended its investment research team and Approved Product List (APL) construction in response to concerns raised by some Genesys Wealth Advisers about their quality and integrity.

The group confirmed it had integrated the AXA and Genesys research teams earlier this year, stating the integration would create efficiencies and result in deeper and broader research being given to advisers. The group made the point of stating that the services, investment committees and APLs for Genesys Wealth Advisers were different to those of AXA-owned dealer groups AXA Financial Planning (AXA FP), Charter Financial Planning and Jigsaw.

“The AXA Financial Planning and Charter Financial Planning APL is very broad,” the group said, pointing to the 51 fund managers and 385 products included on the APL.

“Excluding multi managers, AXA represents just 11 per cent of these,” the group said.

“The Genesys APL is similarly independent and will continue to operate in this way.”

The combined research team services more than 1,400 advisers licensed through AXA FP, Genesys, Charter and Jigsaw.

There are currently four researchers in each of the AXA and Genesys investment research teams, with AXA general manager technical, research and paraplanning Rob Thomas sitting across both teams.

Thomas told Money Management he backed both the Genesys and AXA research teams and said he was confident that he had the right people employed to do the job. He pointed to the team’s mix of investment and risk specialists as well as the qualifications of the members of the team, which include two people with a Master of Business Administration and one Chartered Financial Accountant.

AXA said its balanced model portfolio available to advisers operating under AXA FP and Charter Financial Planning outperformed its benchmark by 8.8 per cent for the year ended 31 December 2009, an outcome the group attributed to the quality of research behind the portfolio.