Skandia is actively looking at boosting its technical financial planning support capabilities, something which Tom Hawkins, head of UK proposition, admits had been overlooked in the last couple of years.
Speaking to FTAdviser, he said while the firm has a technical helpdesk and specialists out in the field, it is something that has not been focused on recently.
“We’ve just appointed Tony Harris as our new head of specialist sales, who is increasing that team from the current headcount to a far larger number, so we’re actively looking to increase our presence in that space to help advisers spot opportunities for their customers.”
Mr Harris came on board in June, to lead Skandia’s 12-strong team of proposition experts, who work with financial advisers to ensure they are aware of various solutions and services available to them.
Mr Hawkins said: “Feedback we’d been receiving said that advisers valued that technical support from Skandia in the past and with the move to Old Mutual Wealth people wanted us to maintain that part of the process.
“Some competitors are actually moving away from that. They are seeing that as the adviser’s role solely, whereas we see that as somewhere we can add some specialist knowledge.”
Mr Hawkins only moved into his newly-created position in April, with the UK proposition being split off from a previous post covering all international markets.
The change followed the launch of WealthSelect in February, with the platform already taking in just over £250m of new flows, with around 90 per cent going into the discretionary managed portfolio service.
“Of that money in the discretionary service, 80 per cent has gone into our active range of portfolios. We are an investment house that strongly believes in active management and it looks like the rest of the market recognised that and sees the value of the active portfolios.
Mr Hawkins added that: “In the UK there us the issue of investment suitability. As advisers and customers know more about their investments it is critical we help them understand their attitude to risk and make sure they invest in a portfolio that matches that.
“Another thing is making sure that adviser are kept up to date on those current advice opportunities for their customers, so obviously there is lots of regulation around and we need to help advisers identify some of those advice opportunities.
“The final thing is in the retirement space at the moment. There has been a lot of change since the Budget announcement, so it is just unpicking that and making sure we have a product and proposition that meets clients need more than anyone else.”
