Asset Migration

Dunstan Thomas powered, Legacy Asset Systems launches Asset Migration Service on Ascentric after successful pilot with Montpelier

29th November 2010
Legacy Asset Systems is today launching its Asset Migration Service on independent wrap platform Ascentric. Legacy Asset Systems was set up in June 2009 to provide services for efficient and compliant migration of legacy assets held in underperforming and largely inactive, normally equity-based, funds onto wrap platforms. Dunstan Thomas a significant shareholder in Legacy Asset Systems, provides RIY+ technology for the service, built around the Imago Front Office system.

Ascentric decided to deepen its partnership with Legacy Asset Systems, and roll out the Asset Migration Service nationally, after a very successful pilot with Manchester-based wealth management firm Montpelier.

Andy Smith, managing director of Montpelier Financial Services (Manchester) explained:
“Legacy Asset Systems has taken the sweat out of the process of ensuring robust cost comparisons for asset migration work for more than 500 clients identified for consideration to transfer their assets onto Ascentric.

“We would have been communicating with more than a hundred separate providers, administrators and trustees from over 500 different products including old with profits bonds, personal and stakeholder pensions, inheritance tax trusts, PEPs, ISAs, SIPPs, SSASs and retirement annuity contracts. It would have bogged us down in administration for years and made the project unviable.

Andy Smith continued:
“Having Legacy Asset Systems on board gave us greater reassurance that our processes around migration are both robust and compliant. As a result we expect to double pre-project recurring income levels, attain 75% of future turnover as recurring income and increase our RI productivity by as much as 50%.”

Montpelier has already completed 84 out of the first tranche of 100 face to face client meetings in less than three months. The total project investment with Legacy Asset Systems of a little over £20,000 to date is already cash flow positive, returning an average of £3,500 of income per meeting.

More than 75% of Montpelier’s clients attending face-to-face meetings are electing to move their assets onto Ascentric. Montpelier is on target to move £80m of assets onto Ascentric by the end of 2011. At this point Andy Smith will realise his vision for the company of covering the whole of its business overheads through customer agreed remuneration.

Under the terms of the partnership between Legacy Asset Systems and Ascentric, Legacy Asset Systems will offer its asset migration services to Ascentric users, helping them identify clients suitable for asset migration to the platform and providing administrative support, technical know-how and client-specific cost and benefit comparisons which then populate a bespoke template suitability letter for each firm.

Richard Goodall, managing director, Ascentric, added:
“We have worked closely with LAS to integrate its market leading proposition into the Ascentric platform and are delighted that we can now offer this major new benefit to our users.”

Bryan Beeston, chief executive, Legacy Asset Systems, added:
“The Montpelier asset migration programme using Ascentric has clearly proved that legacy asset migration onto wrap platforms can form the centrepiece of a transformation project. Firms wanting to grow their businesses and increase their recurring fee income can do so with systems and controls to ensure unprecedented success leading up to and beyond 2012.”
-ends-

Notes to editors:
The importance of remaining compliant during asset migration activity was highlighted in the FSA’s Thematic Review of Pension Switching Advice, published in December 2008.

This study found that:
• 16% of all pension transfers reviewed offered unsuitable advice
• 25% of firms failed to remain compliant with more than a third of all their cases
• 79% of cases failed because there was an unjustified extra cost; and in
• 26% of cases the adviser failed to ascertain if the new product was more expensive.

About Legacy Asset Systems
Legacy Asset Systems launched in June 2009 having spotted a significant opportunity for migration of up to £2 trillion of legacy assets held in underperforming and largely inactive, normally equity-based funds into wrap platforms and other contemporary investment solutions.

Transfers have become very big business as advisors seek to modernise their business practices and take advantage of the latest products. Ever since the first wrap launched 10 years ago it has been clear that the key to transforming the adviser business model is to engage with a systematic and compliant process for transferring existing clients with a collection of legacy products.

This involves a variety of skills and services including processes which scan thousands of old client records to find potentially suitable cases, an accurate ‘before and after’ cost comparison and skilful explanation in client specific suitability reports. Depending on the circumstances, up to 50% of clients can be suitable for transfer.

Legacy Asset Systems’ Asset Migration Service provides firms with an ongoing client data import system to keep the asset migration programme running smoothly. We have a highly experienced migration team organising monthly data ‘harvesting’ of old plan information and providing a legacy provider contact service collecting old plan values, transfer costs, projected values and other costs and charges that may affect the RIY of the existing plans.

About Ascentric
Ascentric is a trading name of Investment Funds Direct Limited. Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK’s first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.

Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients’ assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client’s financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers. In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group. For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk

Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:

• Scottish Life – UK pensions market
• Bright Grey – UK protection market
• Scottish Provident – UK protection market
• Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
• RLAM – fund management
• RLAS – life and pensions administration
• Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap platform

Royal London also distributes life and pensions products through Santander’s national branch network.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £35.5 billion. Group businesses serve around 3.6 million customers and employ 2,800 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 September 2009.

For further information about LAS, please contact:
Bryan Beeston, Chief Executive, Legacy Asset Systems:
Tel: 07939 114578. Email: bbeeston@legacyassetsystems.com

For further information about Ascentric, please contact:
Dominic Ventham, Head of Marketing, Ascentric
Tel: 01225 787 208. Email: dominic.ventham@acentric.co.uk

For Legacy Asset Systems’ media enquiries, please contact:
Miles Clayton, Managing Director, Agility PR
Tel: 01992 587439. Email miles@agilitypr.co.uk