Life insurance drives 54% rise in ClearView’s NPAT
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Underlying net profit after tax (NPAT) at ClearView was up 54% to $22.7 million in FY21, driven almost entirely by life insurance, as the firm undergoes a simplification of its wealth management division.
Operating earnings were up 83% to $23.9 million with 98% of this coming from its life insurance division. The life insurance strength was driven by strong underlying claims and improved lapse performance and the firm intended to launch a new product series in October which would be called ClearChoice.
The firm said it had reported an 80% decrease in operating earnings in its wealth management division which reflected a decline in fee income and changes to the business mix. Underlying NPAT was $0.7 million which was down 79%.
However, there was an increase in funds under management by 22% to $3.4 billion and the firm highlighted the use of ClearView model portfolio and platform funds on the HUB24 platform had been a key driver.
Targets had been set for the simplification of the wealth segment including cost base reductions and the digitisation of the front-end technology to drive customer engagement and inflows.
Financial advice operating earnings were down 58% to $0.9 million and the firm announced the sale of the financial advice business to Centrepoint Alliance.
It would pay out a fully franked cash dividend of 1 cent per share.
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