BT turning retail strategy on its head
BT Funds Management (BTFM) has radically altered its game plan in the retail fi-nancial services market under a joint venture arrangement with American Interna-tional Assurance (AIA).
BT Funds Management (BTFM) has radically altered its game plan in the retail fi-nancial services market under a joint venture arrangement with American Interna-tional Assurance (AIA).
Under the arrangement, BTFM will market, package and distribute a complying pension product underwritten by AIA through independent financial planners.
The agreement marks a number of firsts for BT as it embarks on a major assault on the retail and corporate superannuation market. It is the first time the group has put serious muscle behind a complying pension product and the first time it has out-sourced product manufacture for a major launch.
BT will roll out its superannuation strategy next month which will include a more flexible corporate superannuation product and a DIY solution for the accumulation market and the complying pension for the retirement market.
“We will aggressively re-position BT in the minds of financial advisers as the pre-mier choice in both the accumulation and retirement stages of the superannuation cycle. One of the key planks of the strategy is the new complying pension,” says BTFM’s head of retail, Rob Coombe.
Coombe claims the BT Complying Income Plan is the only complying pension backed by a Standard & Poor AAA rating. He says BT is also looking to compete with the frontrunners on rates.
“There are two things an adviser looks for in a complying pension — a good rate and a good credit rating,” he says.
“Other players in the market have one but not the other. We have got the backing of a AAA rating plus I think we will be in the top quartile in rates, if not the top spot.”
The complying pension market in Australia has become one of the most hotly contested markets over the past year. The market is worth about $150 million a quarter and is dominated by Westpac, AMP and Challenger.
BT’s market share currently stands at about 3.6 per cent which Coombe says the group hopes to raise to 10 per cent “over the next few years”.
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