Standard Life Wealth has created a set of five unique investment strategies that will form the backbone of the Standard Life Wrap Platform's new Managed Portfolio Service (MPS).
IFAs using the Wrap platform will now be able to select from five strategies retaining the discretionary management services of Standard Life Wealth to actively manage their client's portfolios. Standard Life Wealth's investment team will adjust the portfolios to respond to changing market conditions and views on the underlying managers - from across the whole market - whose funds are being used within the portfolios.
The launch of MPS will allow more people to access the investment expertise of Standard Life Wealth's discretionary fund managers.
Richard Charnock, Chief Executive Officer of Standard Life Wealth, said: "The Managed Portfolio Service is testament to how Standard Life's Wrap technology development is leading the market. Standard Life Wealth is about bringing the best institutional investments techniques to bear on client portfolios and up until now this has meant we have had to restrict this expertise to clients with more than £500k to invest. Advancements on our Wrap platform mean we can now offer our discretionary expertise to more people."
To help IFAs meet their client's individual needs, each of the five strategies has been set up with a different level of risk and a different target return. With volatility management a key feature, the portfolios have been specifically created to provide a strong match with modern goals-based planning approaches. The aim at all times is to minimise volatility for the given target return and therefore maximise the certainty of the client achieving his or her goals.
As the service is fully embedded on the Wrap platform, IFAs can benefit from up-to-date holdings and performance information together with far richer reporting than typically available from managed fund-based approaches.
Standard Life Wealth's Strategy & Business Development Director, David Tiller, said: "While we are keen to be able to participate in the growing MPS market it is very important to Standard Life Wealth that we did not merely launch a ‘me too' solution.
"In creating the portfolio strategies we have looked to retain the purity of our investment approach. Unlike other MPS approaches, which rely solely on the standard universe of retail funds available on Wrap platforms, we have linked them to institutional-grade investment techniques via our exclusive Strategic Investment Allocation fund.
"This fund, when combined with the rest of the portfolio, allows us to greatly enhance portfolio diversification and take a more dynamic approach to the management of portfolio risks. The net result is the client receives a more consistent and predictable return for investors."
Richard Charnock concludes: "Managed Portfolio Service brings together the best of both Standard Life and Standard Life Wealth. And it's a great example of collaboration across Standard Life's UK business. By combining investment capabilities with the platform know-how of Wrap to create our Managed Portfolio Service, we believe we have created a proposition of real value to IFAs and their clients."
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