AXA Wealth has launched AXA Self Investor, an innovative ‘non-advised’ investment service in response to adviser demand for a self-directed offer, to complement their advised model.
Built on a ‘making investing easy’ philosophy, AXA Self Investor will enable adviser firms to provide simple investment support to those clients not necessarily requiring, or able to afford, a full financial advice service both now and in a post-RDR world.
The new proposition will provide access to ‘smart+’, a funds-based stocks & shares ISA and Trading Account, with a choice of around 170 funds, including the Favourites Fund Range, which is carefully selected by AXA Wealth’s specialist investment team, Architas, and draws from extensive experience across a broad range of asset classes and 1,000 fund manager meetings every year.
AXA Self Investor is intended to work alongside an adviser’s existing proposition. It provides a solution to those clients who intend to self-direct a proportion of their wealth or who can’t, or don’t want to, pay for advice post-RDR. Investors will benefit from a simple and straightforward user interface, with a transparent charging structure, enabling them to manage their investments at a time and place that suits them.
Mike Kellard, chief executive officer, AXA Wealth, commented: “Our strategy is evolving fast, and we are continuing to explore new distribution channels that meet the changing demands of both advisers and their clients. The way clients engage with financial services is changing, as are the ways in which advisers do business.
Built on the award-winning Elevate platform, AXA Self Investor will help advisers demonstrate a value added proposition to clients that ensures they remain engaged indirectly with those clients for whom investment advice is no longer viable. As well as developing a landing page and co-branded website that offers a straight-through investing process, the AXA Self Investor service can also provide marketing support, managing direct mail and email campaigns, and the production of literature on the adviser’s behalf.
Kellard concluded: “AXA Self Investor is a simple and easy to use investment service that we’re confident advisers and their clients will value. This type of offering will be essential to firms who look to get maximum value from their client relationships, especially post-RDR, and will help to address the advice gap we believe the RDR legislation will create.”
Key features of AXA Self Investor:
• Funds that cover all major sectors and regions
• Choice of 6 low-cost, multi-asset passive funds from Architas
• Ease of transferring ISA balances
• Investing from as little as £200 per month, or £2,000 as a lump sum
• An innovative ‘watchlist' that enables easy tracking of investments
• Support and help from a UK-based customer support team
• No initial charges on any funds – save up to £620* on this year’s ISA
• Free to buy, sell and switch funds at any time.
One of the first adviser firms to adopt AXA Self Investor is Maple Leaf Financial Solutions.
Director, Linford Brown said: “It is important for us to work in partnership with providers who understand how the RDR will affect our advice proposition. AXA Self Investor gives us the opportunity to reach out to those clients we have segmented as wanting simple investment solutions.”
|
