Saunders takes on Asgard mantle

Caroline Saunders has moved into the newly created position of investments and insurance director at Sealcorp.

Caroline Saunders has moved into the newly created position of investments and insurance director at Sealcorp.

In the new role Saunders will oversee the Asgard master trust service which cur-rently has a portfolio size of $7.6 billion, of which $1 billion has been added in the last six months.

Saunders was previously associate director of financial planning and investment strategy at Sealcorp, a position she took up earlier this year following a number of years with Assirt.

Assirt was recently spun off from the Sealcorp business in a deal with Bourse Data to set up the Wealthpoint business.

Sealcorp director of marketing Kate Mulligan says Asgard has adopted a system where different risk profiles are matched to portfolios selected by the master trust resulting in investors obtaining direct exposure to the underlying funds, rather than through a fund of funds approach.

Saunders selects the investments which comprise these options using research from Assirt and other sources, according to Mulligan.

Mulligan says Saunders will be involved in ensuring financial advisers meet the requirements for allocating client funds into the master trust.

Sealcorp chief executive Ian Knox says the changing role for Saunders is indicative of the expansion in its master trust business.

Sealcorp's insurance division will report directly to Saunders who in turn will be over-seen by Knox.

At the same time the group has also added MLC product management executive Luke Benjamin who will take up the role of general investment products general manager.

In the newly created role Benjamin will be responsible for Sealcorp’s wrap and mas-ter trust products and provide support to a selected range of products.