A company might be doing a good job, but that does not mean everyone knows about it.
This has been the story for InvestAcc, which has bagged the top spot among the five-star-rated life and pensions companies.
Managing director Nick Gardner said that appointing a specialist public relations firm helped raise awareness, among IFAs, of the company and what it did.
As a result, the company has seen an increase in the number of advisers it deals with – a jump of 25 per cent compared with this time last year.
It now deals with 350 IFAs across the country.
Mr Gardner said: “One of the problems we have being a very small company, apart from being confused for a [company with a zebra emblem], is that people have really never heard of us because we operate in a niche market.
“We reached a glass ceiling as to how we could promote ourselves with the limited number of IFAs we were dealing with – other than going out on the road, which is a very expensive exercise.”
The demand for defined benefit (DB) transfers has also boosted its client base, as more advisers are being drawn to discretionary fund managers (DFMs) because of the level of complexity involved.
Mr Gardner added: “There seems to be a shift in the market. IFAs are no longer using the monoliths, but they tend to be placing money with DFMs, and they like a Sipp to be able to do that.”
Over the next 12 months InvestAcc plans to increase its staff. It has already started doing this by forming links with universities to pick up talented graduates.
It is also projecting a 25 per cent increase in the amount of business it will do.
Ways to success:
Undertaken graduate programme.
Appointed a public relations company to increase awareness.
Dealing with more adviser enquiries as result of increase in DB transfer requests.
Increasing staffing levels.
Forging electronic links to other DFMs and platforms.
