News - Press Release

March 2010

Succession selects Dunstan Thomas for SIPP illustrations and administration

Dunstan Thomas, the pensions and investment administration solutions provider, has been chosen by Succession Advisory Services (Succession), the specialist fund consolidator and capital creation vehicle for IFA firms, to integrate its Imago Front Office into Succession’s self invested personal pension (SIPP) offering.

Dunstan Thomas’ Imago Front Office will provide illustrations for Succession’s SIPP product which is provided through the Investment Funds Direct Limited (IFDL) wrap platform. Imago Front Office can support all four stages of financial advice from fact find through to completion, submission and review for the purposes of re-balancing portfolios.

Imago Back Office provides great flexibility for retirement options such as drawdown with a fully integrated and automated payroll. It also enables the provision of consolidated views across product and tax wrappers to deliver data aggregation as well as totally integrated workflow across pensions schemes.

Imago’s double entry accounting module allows for automatic reconciliation. This saves time and delivers up-to-date cash positions to clients. It also enables the level of transparency required to support FSA Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) enquiries.

Dunstan Thomas’ use of such a mature and full functioning set of tools, together with the very latest web services technology and software development techniques, enables its customers to move quickly and cost effectively to introduce new offerings to differentiate its services from competitor platforms.

Simon Chamberlain, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Succession, said: “We are committed to ensuring that Succession members offer their clients the best service and expertise available in the marketplace. To this end, we have pursued diligently, partners and service providers who can provide the best value for money and quality our members have come to expect.  “I am therefore delighted that Dunstan Thomas will be able to offer our IFAs fully compliant and highly instructive illustrations which show clearly what their clients’ SIPP should deliver at retirement. Dunstan Thomas’ Imago will also deliver administrative capability for managing valuation, draw down and numerous other calculations for our clients.”

Chris Read, chairman, Dunstan Thomas added:
“We are very pleased to be assisting the expansion of Succession’s private client offerings with both SIPP illustrations and back office administration. Succession was attracted by the fact that Imago offers so many key elements of front and back office SIPP business processing and administration from a single, highly experienced provider it can trust.”


About Succession Advisory Services
Succession is a fund consolidator business, launched on 1st May 2009 by former Thinc CEO Simon Chamberlain with partners Tim Parsons (former Thinc director), Andrew Smith (founder and former CEO of Hambro Fraser Smith) and Paul Morrish (ex Barclays director). Succession is backed by Committed Capital, an Australian-based private equity investment and management consultant. It will specialise in consolidation and capital creation for IFA firms seeking to future proof their business from the twin challenges of the retail distribution review (RDR) and competitive pressures, while securing exit partners for those practice principals seeking to exit the market. Additional information about the company can be found on www.succession advisoryservices.com.