Retirement Advantage has chosen Square Mile Investment Consulting and Research to provide fund selection, asset allocation and ongoing investment performance monitoring for its new Retirement Account proposition.
Initially, the selection of nine funds has been compiled with reference to Square Mile’s qualitative assessment and encompasses three distinct approaches: outcome, Investment Association sector-defined and total return income biased.
For each approach one fund has been selected to meet cautious, balanced and adventurous risk appetites, with cost as an additional consideration.
The firm added that funds will be set against criteria to justify their continued inclusion, with those failing to do so being removed, while Square Mile may also add to this core list over time.
The asset allocation will be managed across three portfolios of passive vehicles from Vanguard Asset Management, designed to meet those with those three differing risk appetites.
Peter Carter, product and marketing director at Retirement Advantage, said that with greater freedom over investment choice at and beyond retirement, comes greater responsibility for ensuring fund selections are fit for purpose, adding that Square Mile has built a reputation for vehicles that closely meet specific objectives.
Last month, Retirement Advantage announced that the Retirement Account - a blended product combining annuity guarantee with drawdown flexibility, set to be officially launched later this year - will be backed by GBST’s Composer technology platform.
Daren O’Brien, director at Aurora Financial Solutions, commented: “I think this innovative solution will be extremely useful to IFA as we are all looking for a way to meet the advice gap in a cost effective way.
“These simple solutions will go a long way to help us and other IFA’s provide a lower cost solution to clients who may not need a full advice service that most IFA’s now only provide.”
ruth.gillbe@ft.com
