Tavistock Investments has officially launched its direct-to-consumer app, which allows the client to open an Isa or a general investment account.
In a market update issued today (May 15), the investment manager revealed that a self-invested personal pension and other Tavistock Wealth funds will be made available in due course through the smartphone app.
The company announced the launch of the "i-stock" app last year, after a positive response from consumers to its new products.
Tavistock also stated that in due course the app could be rebranded to provide Lighthouse or any of its partners access to Tavistock Wealth's investment products.
FTAdviser reported last year that the investment manager and Lighthouse entered into a "strategic agreement" which saw the latter take a 5.3 per cent stake in the former.
Tavistock made the announcement in its results for the year to the end of March, published today (May 15), which showed a decrease of 68 per cent in its reported profit from operations, from £489,000 to £156,000, when compared to the previous 12-month period.
The company’s gross revenues decreased by 5 per cent to £27.3bn in the last year, from £28.8bn.
However, Tavistock announced a maiden interim dividend of £0.01 per share declared "in light of continued strong performance".
Tavistock’s advisory business saw its gross revenues fall by 11 per cent, from £25.2m to £22.5m, due to "the added burden placed upon advisers by the introduction of Mifid II".
Another reason for this decrease is the company’s policy to ensure as far as possible that the regulatory risk associated with the group's advisory business is matched against potential commercial reward, it stated.
"In pursuit of this objective, we have during the year successfully encouraged a number of poorer performing appointed representative firms to leave the group," the company added.
Tavistock saw its funds under management increase 9 per cent during the year to £945m, up from £866m in the previous period.
According to Brian Raven, Tavistock’s group chief executive, the payment of a maiden interim dividend marks the achievement of a long held strategic objective and demonstrates the strength of the company’s business model.
He said: "Our protected products have been universally well received and we will continue to focus on making them as widely available as possible. We intend to disrupt the D2C space with our free of charge app.
"We aim to continue to improve the group's profitability and manage a regular and growing dividend stream for the benefit of our shareholders."
maria.espadinha@ft.com
