Lifespan rejigs Omniport pricing

LifespanFinancial Planningwill re-price its Omniport wrap platform by the end of November in response to significant pressure being placed on fees in the market.

The specific changes to the fee structure of the platform, which has $70 million in assets and was launched back in November 1999, will be unveiled next month, says Lifespan research manager William Tomac.

In addition, a new tier changing the fee structure for invested funds between zero and $500,000 will be added to the wrap in the form of a separate fee being introduced for investments ranging from zero to $250,000 and investments between $250,000 and $500,000.

Tomac says the pressure on fees, however, is not restricted solely to wraps but has become an issue throughout the industry and largely fuelled by increasing competition and the recent weak performance of investment markets.

“There’s definite pressure on fees in fund manager land, wrap land and to a lesser extent, adviser land — after all, they do all the work,” Tomac says.

Tomac says the group, which has 150 contracted advisers (60 per cent of whom are accountants), is also monitoring its costs and repositioning to take advantage of an anticipated upswing in activity after March 11 next year.

“What we’re doing is battening down the hatches, stabilising the business and sharpening the knives for the opportunities that lie ahead,” he says.

Such opportunities are the numbers of adviser practices that are unlikely to be FSR compliant come March.

“Many practices will find they are not compliant and we believe as many advisers won’t want to be institutionally owned, they are likely to join independent dealer groups.”

Lifespan has $400 million in funds under advice.