Super service targets non-advised
Online direct financial services group Your Prosperity has added superannuation to its share broking, managed funds broking and investment portfolio services.
Online direct financial services group Your Prosperity has added superannuation to its share broking, managed funds broking and investment portfolio services.
The new service allows self-directed investors to rollover their superannuation accounts into an investment portfolio service which monitors and provides a consolidated transaction report which includes an annual statement for tax purposes. Investors can then use their account for free transactions on 100 funds from 14 different fund managers.
Your Prosperity chief executive John Reid says the service is primarily aimed at the non-advised rollover market.
“Most other master trust services are essentially a back office service for financial planners,” he says.
“Our market is the self-directed investor who does not seek financial advice due to the relatively simple nature of their financial affairs.”
The management fee is 0.65 per cent for the first $150,000 invested, 0.50-per cent for the next $350,000 and 0.25-per cent thereafter.
Your Prosperity licensed a Sungard system to run the service rather than use the back office of fellow MLC subsidiary Flexiplan. Reid says the group decided against using the Flexiplan sys-tem due to its strong growth generated from financial planners and its focus on that market.
Your Prosperity celebrates its second birthday in July. It pioneered online portfolio services for direct investors and remains the only player to offer self-directed investors the service alongside its share and managed fund broking service.
Reid says that while Your Prosperity’s share of the online financial services market is still small but there is plenty of scope for growth, particularly in the managed funds and superannuation side of the business.
“Our research indicates that a growing number of people will invest directly using the Internet if given greater investment choice, flexibility and control," he says.
Reid would not comment on Your Prosperity’s future in light of the proposed takeover of MLC by the National announced in April. However, a statement on its Web site indicates the National may well use the service for its huge database of customers.
“It is envisaged that Your Prosperity's offering will continue to grow and that National's custom-ers will be provided with access to its online wealth management and investment system,” the statement on the site says.
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