Wealth manager Saunderson House will launch a new online client portal in the second half of this year, alongside its new discretionary management service.
The plans were alluded to in the parent company IFG Group’s first quarter results, which stated that the moves will “enhance its ability to tailor its service proposition based on client circumstances and broaden the proposition to a wider market”.
Speaking to FTAdviser, Saunderson House’s managing director Tony Overy explained that while the portal and discretionary service were separate, they would clearly fit well alongside one another.
The online proposition is the front end result of extensive back end technology investment and will for the first time give clients access to online valuations of their assets, while also delivering reports direct, rather than via email.
“We will continue to develop further features over time - we can’t deliver everything at once - but from client feedback found that these were two of the most requested features,” explained Mr Overy.
As for the discretionary service, this is currently going through testing, ahead of a “gentle launch” in the second half of this year.
“It’s really a case of getting the timing right with this service, it’s been in the works for a while, but we didn’t want to launch it before we were completely satisfied,” Mr Overy added.
He stated that both new ventures were key to the firm’s ethos of putting the customer first, something especially important when the focus is on high net worth individuals.
Last year’s annual report showed that Saunderson House’s client attrition remains at less than 1 per cent and 247 new customers were added during 2014, equating to a 60 per cent increase compared to 154 in 2013 and 100 in 2012.
peter.walker@ft.com
