Sagitta name goes as BT unites product range
TheBT Financial Groupwill consolidate its product range under one name from October 27, laying to rest the Sagitta brand as all 450 products in the group’s wholesale and retail range come under a common banner.
The move will also see the rollout of a number of low cost retail funds to target the space occupied by low cost platforms such as Colonial First State’s First Choice, ING’s One Answer and BT’s own Wrap Essentials.
BT head of retail Rob Coombe says the consolidation would eliminate brand confusion between BT and Sagitta in the market and reduce duplication of funds and services within the group.
In standardising the products across the retail side of the group Coombe says it has adopted what it sees as the best elements of the BT and Sagitta funds management operations and has adopted the Sagitta up-front fee structure on products and the BT trail commission structure.
This means that all retail funds would have a 4 per cent up front fee, an increase of 1 per cent for some funds and carry 0.6 per cent trail commission, an increase of 0.15 per cent for Sagitta funds. Management expense ratios (MER) will remain unchanged.
The new fee structures will also apply to a range of 12 new funds offered by BT using external fund manager relationships.
Coombe says these funds will be the same external manager funds as those on Wrap Essentials and carrying a similar pricing structure but would be outside the platform.
The new funds will join the consolidated range which will be broken into categories including ‘classic’ funds which represent a primary offering in each retail product class and ‘heritage’ funds which indicate those funds which have been retained but renamed and realigned within the range.
However Coombe stresses that none of the group’s master trust or mezzanine funds will be terminated and that only 35 retail funds will close for new business with only three being terminated.
The move also comes as BT prepares to post some of its best performance figures for both this year and since the group’s run of poor performance began in 2001.
BT head of product Jason Yetton says figures from InTech show BT to have moved from fourth quartile in August last year to first quartile this year in Australian equities moving from a position of -6.3 per cent to 3 per cent relative to the ASX 300 accumulation benchmark.
AUTHOR
Jason Spits
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