Skandia International launches new wealth management service
Skandia International, the offshore business of Old Mutual Wealth Management, is responding to the UK's Retail Distribution Review by investing £21m to roll out Wealth Interactive.
Skandia International, the offshore business of Old Mutual Wealth Management, is responding to the UK’s Retail Distribution Review by investing £21m to roll out Wealth Interactive.
Lunching in 2012, Wealth Interactive will facilitate Skandia International’s business into the UK by making its solutions RDR compliant. RDR is a regulatory objective that comes into effect on 1 January 2013, and is intended to shake up the way that manufacturers and distributors approach the UK retail market.
The new wealth management service will also be used to support Skandia International’s offshore portfolio bond products.
Wealth Interactive is intended to offer financial intermediaries a more end-to-end service than they may currently be used to. It will enable intermediaries working with clients to obtain illustrations, snapshots of applications waiting to be processed, latest investment values, correspondence, switching activity and full transaction histories. A ‘dashboard’ will enable views of intermediaries’ portfolio bond business with Skandia International, as well as risk profiling and portfolio building.
The new service will launch on a region-by-region basis, starting in the second quarter of 2012.
Steven Levin, chief executive at Skandia International, said: “Historically customers have had a rather fragmented view of their offshore wealth and the international nature of our industry has inhibited the development of really efficient business models.”
“We believe this needs to change in order to cater for evolving adviser and customer requirements. Wealth Interactive is a significant investment for Skandia International, and one that I believe will raise standards across the markets in which we operate. It will certainly transform the way we are able to work with advisers and customers, significantly improving quality, increasing turn-around times and providing a flexible and scalable business platform for the future.”
Skandia International is made up of Royal Skandia (Isle of Man), Skandia Life Ireland (Dublin) and Old Mutual International. It is also responsible for Skandia Life sales to local nationals in Finland. The business is part of Skandia Group, which is owned by Old Mutual, the UK-listed financial services company with roots in South Africa, and which currently operates in more than 40 markets worldwide.
