Skandia’s Intech acquisition a way to differentiate itself
Ross Laidlaw
Skandia has revealed part of the motivation for its recent acquisition of Intech stemmed from a desire to differentiate itself in what it perceives as an ever increasing commoditised financial services industry.
Chief executive of Skandia Ross Laidlaw said: “Clearly the opportunity to look at the Intech acquisition was an area we were already working on in terms of our multi-manager research and we see that as an important way for us to continue to differentiate our service going forward.”
He added Intech’s asset management capability was also viewed by his organisation as an attractive characteristic.
“In terms of the Intech business they had the implemented consulting and the Intech investment trust so they had a much more efficient way of delivering asset management capability and we saw this as a very important piece,” he explained.
In mapping out the coming 12 to 24 months for Skandia, Laidlaw said the result of increased scale from the acquisition was already evident.
“Last year I would have said our goal was $10 billion [in funds under management] by 2010. The acquisition has moved us up to where we can really be aiming for a target of $20 billion size by 2008,” he said.
In terms of a broader strategic direction Laidlaw revealed Skandia wanted to become a preferred platform by 2010.
“We’re probably already in the top four for non-aligned platforms but we want to continue to be a preferred platform to the IFA [independent financial advisory] market. Through joining forces with Intech we want to also be a leading provider of multi-manager products,” he said.
Recommended for you
The FSCP has announced its latest verdict, suspending an adviser’s registration for failing to comply with his obligations when providing advice to three clients.
Having sold Madison to Infocus earlier this year, Clime has now set up a new financial advice licensee with eight advisers.
With licensees such as Insignia looking to AI for advice efficiencies, they are being urged to write clear AI policies as soon as possible to prevent a “Wild West” of providers being used by their practices.
Iress has revealed the number of clients per adviser that top advice firms serve, as well as how many client meetings they conduct each week.
