Colonial First State will launch a “state of the art” wealth management platform to the financial adviser market by the end of the year as it deploys $430 million to renovate products after leaving Commonwealth Bank., says it will “aggressively” target the $990 billion market for wealth platforms, used by advisers to manage client assets.
“For us now coming out of the bank and putting legacy issues behind us, we see that we can contest this space,” CFS’s chief executive of superannuation, Kelly Power, told“We have deep adviser relationships, good expertise and amazing people. “This is a huge part of our strategy and one we feel we can win in.”CFS was Australia’s fourth largest platform provider at September last year, controlling about 14.6 per cent of the market, according to researcher Plan for Life.
“Our hope is to come out with something by the end of this calendar year that is better than anything that exists in the market today, leveraging what FNZ have already done overseas,” she said. CFS was working with a group of practising financial advisers to design the product, Ms Power said, pledging that it would not be an off the shelf solution despite partnering with FNZ. “We believe this is going to be something very unique and very competitive,” she said.
She hoped it would help to reduce the cost of financial advisers to serve their clients after the fees rose 30 per cent on average in the past two years under the weight of rising regulatory red tape.The product would be aimed squarely at financial advisers and their needs, bucking the trend of industry players launching