In its first-half of 2012 results, Old Mutual Wealth Management, of which Skandia UK is a part, said: “Discussions are currently underway with a limited number of high quality asset managers to develop a new fund range for the post-RDR market.
“The new fund range will cover all asset classes, be highly competitive on cost and will include the best fund managers in the market. It will enable any financial adviser to design their own model portfolio service for their customers and will be particularly attractive to restricted financial advisers post RDR.”
Following this, Skandia this morning announced its new pricing structure which will come into force in December this year, 12-months ahead of the regulatory timetable.
It will introduce a single platform charge depending on the level of assets held, staggered from 0.5% for the first £25,000 up to 0.15% for £1m and above.
There will be no additional charges made for any wrapper used, nor any extra transaction costs such as those normally levied for switching and rebalancing. The existing bundled charging structure will still be available to advisers.
Elsewhere, OMWM announced an operating profit down by 4% compared to the first half of 2011, from £99m to £95m, while gross inflows for the global business were down to £5.6bn from £6bn over the equivalent time periods.
Its UK business saw gross inflows of £2.8bn, down from £3.4bn in the first six months of last year, while gross inflows through its platform fell from £2.8bn to £2.2bn.
Looking ahead, a company statement added: “While platforms remain the growth areas for affluent and high net worth clients, there has begun to be demand from both customers and IFAs for the provision of packaged investment solutions, rather than simple access to open architecture. We believe the implementation of RDR will see a significant number of IFAs offering restricted advice and this will further support the need for product providers to deliver such solutions to customers.
