AXA's upgraded North product doubles inflows
A combination of an expanded offering and caution from investors has helped AXA's North platform double its net inflows in the September quarter compared to the same time last year.
"In a quarter where people have been reluctant to invest money due to markets, our net cash flows have doubled compared to [the] same quarter last year [to] $242 million," said AMP director of sales Barry Wyatt, who was previously AXA's general manager of marketing and strategy prior to the merger with AMP.
But he said the North business had really exploded since developing it into a full wrap offering, including direct share trading, 200 managed funds and a variety of term deposits, rather than just the guarantee.
Investors were also starting to split their accounts into four sub-accounts, he said. These included a cash strategy to meet short-term needs; an investment portfolio for generating income (including a combination of high yielding stocks and income securities); a high growth portion designed as a long-term investment based on equities; as well as the traditional North guarantee component.
"That way clients can manage short-term volatility because they have security. If markets drop 20 per cent, it's in the longer term portion - which has time to recover," he said.
North will continue as a standalone offering separate to the Summit and Generations platforms and AMP's Flexible Super - although Summit and Generations are still on track to migrate over to the same technology that currently underpins North, Wyatt said. Summit and Generations are still on sale, and serve as a complement to North offering slightly different things.
AMP Flexible Super also forms an interesting combination to North, because its pricing makes it cheaper than most industry super funds and creates the opportunity for clients to start off as industry fund-type accumulators in AMP Flexible Super, then move into North closer to retirement, he said.
"They're complementary, they're different ends of the spectrum. The group (AMP/AXA) is comfortable with the two separate offers."
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