NRMA shows retirement a ClearView

NRMA Financial Managementplans to double its funds under management to more than $2 billion in the next two years with the help from the group’s retiree market push, ClearView Retirement Solutions.

At present, NRMA Financial Management has total funds under management of $1.2 billion, with $2 billion in funds under advice.

NRMA Financial Management general manager John Cowan says the retirement solutions market for medium superannuation savers is relatively untapped, giving NRMA abundant opportunity and room for growth.

“There is a great opportunity to build and grow from this. We think the market is big enough for us to move into,” he says.

ClearView, part of NRMA Financial Management’s strategy, focuses on retirement services and offers obligation-free financial advice to its customers. Through the ClearView product, retiree clients do not pay an entry, exit or advice fee. The management expense ratio (MER) stands at 2.3 per cent.

At present, under the ClearView structure, the group has 25 financial planners, which Cowan says will be doubled in the near future. While declining to reveal how the growth will occur, Cowan says the extra planners will come through a mix of organic growth from within the NRMA system and planners from outside the group.

The ClearView product range, which is modelled in a fund-of-fund retirement product approach, will make use of both internal and external fund management expertise. External managers will include, Rothschild, BT Funds Management and Merrill Lynch, with NRMA Asset Management supplying internal funds management services.

NRMA’s ClearView venture now joins a growing list of financial services initiatives made by the group. As well as offering retirement solutions, NRMA also offers unit trusts, superannuation, and life and risk insurance products.

While these have been available for some time, Cowan disputes that the group’s past financial services efforts have been a little less than successful.

“We have been successful in the past, however, we have not continued to build on that success. The reason why we are going to be successful [this time] is because we are focused on the people, and the planners and retirement.”

ClearView will be available from NRMA’s Sydney and Canberra branches, as well as from its regional New South Wales offices. The group plans to launch nationally within two years.