Pressure applied to Portfolio Partners
A push to make Portfolio Partners more retail-orientated and increasing market share in the superannuation business are the Norwich Union’s new chief executive officer’s priorities.
Rob Garnsworthy says the funds management and life company operations are not in the top 10 and the aim now is to get it among the top-performers.
"We have been through an extensive management review and the results were self-evident," he says.
"We have a leading position with Navigator, although not a high profile, but the life and funds management business are not top performers.
"We are not doing very well in superannuation, and that worries me."
Norwich still plans to sell its Super Solutions corporate superannuation product through planners, but the company will be putting greater emphasis on winning market share for this product.
"We have got a reasonable product with the right technical support, so we have to get some of the superannuation money that is going to master trusts," Garnsworthy says.
The funds management operation, Portfolio Partners, must start attracting more funds through Navigator and this will mean a stronger retail focus, he says.
"They have got to establish a presence in their own right in the retail market as at present they are more wholesale-focussed."
Garnsworthy says Portfolio Partners will have to concentrate on improving its performance and distribution links.
On distribution, Garnsworthy is quite clear. He will not be buying distribution for the sake of it and any moves in that area will be carefully considered.
"We are a different financial services company to the others and we will be taking an independent adviser stance for future distribution," he says.
With the recent merger with Commercial Union, Garnsworthy says he is still looking at cross-selling products.
"Next year we will do something together, but we have very different client bases," he says.
The different operations means there will not be a major merger of the two Melbourne-based operations. Garnsworthy sees some synergies in the back office operation, but both companies work on very different IT platforms.
"There are some opportunities to be exploited and there are some synergies to be had down the road," he says.
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