Over-50s group Saga and investment house Tilney Bestinvest have joined forces to launch a new joint venture which will develop a range of bespoke services and solutions.
The business will be branded ‘Saga Investment Services powered by Tilney Bestinvest’ and will be operational in the second half of this year.
Saga will identify people within its proprietary database of 10.6m over-50s who could benefit from the new services.
Saga insight will inform the proposition design and customer experience, whilst Tilney Bestinvest will provide the investment and financial planning capability.
They cited a recent study from the independent Centre for Economic and Business Research which found that those aged 50 and over hold 77.3 per cent of all the UK’s financial wealth, £1,200bn, as well as 70.8 per cent of pension wealth, £3,400bn.
It is estimated that the new freedoms to access pension savings from April will see an extra £1.5bn released to spend or invest in 2015, so Saga and Tilney Bestinvest believe the demand for high quality financial information and access to trusted advice has never been greater.
The business will be able to service customers throughout the UK and will be headquartered in London, with a team of nationwide investment professionals and financial planners.
Lance Batchelor, group chief executive at Saga, stated that the investment planning needs of the majority of Britain have not been well served by the financial services industry to date.
“We will develop a range of services and solutions tailored to the needs of people, rather than the convenience of financial institutions.
“Through this [joint venture] we aim to bring the level of expertise that has generally only been available to very wealthy individuals.”
Peter Hall, chief executive of Tilney Bestinvest, added: “Whether people want to have their investments managed for them, have the support of an expert adviser, or to manage their own investments, we want the new business to be recognised as the market leader for meeting the investment and financial planning needs of the over 50s.”
Saga and Tilney Bestinvest will each own half of the joint venture, with a board consisting of three directors appointed by each business, plus a managing director and finance director who are yet to be appointed.
peter.walker@ft.com
