National builds platform for growth in UK
The wealth management arm of the National Australia group, National Wealth Management, will export its Australian capabilities in adviser service platforms to the UK, launching a new service product designed to spur expansion in the market.
Branded ‘Pivotal,’ the product will initially provide the UK external financial advice (EFA) market with access toMLC Investment Management’s series of six multi-manager funds.
Development of the product in the near future will also see it offer consultancy and business services to UK advisers.
The National is also planning to add four other diversified investment options to the platform. The options will be based on MLC’s Australian ‘Horizon’ series.
National Wealth Management executive general manager Peter Scott says the Pivotal service is part of its strategy of exporting Australian experience to new markets.
“When the National acquired MLC one of its key objectives was to drive greater value from the acquisition by taking MLC’s capabilities and experience to other markets where we already had a presence,” Scott says.
“This is about building our relationships with EFAs by providing them with tools to help them run their businesses and customer relationships more effectively,” he says.
The business consultancy services being developed will include business coaching, best practice benchmarking, annual business planning and succession planning, while business services will encompass things such as compliance and information technology.
Scott says the objective of Pivotal is to enable advisers to spend less time working on their business and more time working in their business.
He described the launch of Pivotal as another step in the re-engineering of the group’s UK wealth management operations, which includes life and pensions and general and commercial insurance businesses.
“The National has a long-term strategy for its UK operations and the organic growth of our wealth management business is a key part of that agenda,” he says.
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