Press Release
London & Colonial and Cofunds form strategic partnership
01/12/2012
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London & Colonial and Cofunds form strategic partnership to offer unbundled pension wrappers in both the pre and post retirement space.
Following on from the launch of their latest two product offerings, London & Colonial’s Multi-Platform SIPP and Multi-Platform Open Annuity are now available via the Cofunds Platform.
Alistair Conway, Sales & Marketing Director at Cofunds said:
‘In the current climate Platforms should be working to help intermediaries in a number of ways, one of the most important being to help them demonstrate their value to end investors. An integral element of that is responding to changing retirement planning needs. London & Colonial pioneered the investment linked flexible annuity market with its original ‘open annuity’ and this offers our Platform users an alternative post retirement option not previously available.
So we’re extremely pleased to be able to offer our funds dealing capability to support London & Colonial’s innovative Multi-Platform SIPP and Multi-Platform Open Annuity wrappers via our Funds Inside Service. Funds Inside sits behind these wrappers and provides instant access to over 1,500 funds from 90 plus fund managers.’
Adam Wrench, Head of Product and Business Development at London & Colonial said:
‘In partnership with Cofunds we have been able to unbundle the pension wrapper administration from the Platform investment administration.
Cofunds, as the UK’s leading financial services Platform with over £45 billion in assets under administration, already accounts for some 26% of the UK’s platform market. We are thrilled to welcome them on board, and now with access to Cofunds’ greater choice of funds and extensive range of underlying investment opportunities, we are confident that our new Multi-Platform SIPP and Multi-Platform Open Annuity will become the latest successful additions to our existing product range.’
Although traditionally aimed more towards high net worth individuals, these two latest offerings mark somewhat of a change in direction for London & Colonial.
With an already established reputation as a specialist SIPP and flexible annuity provider, this move towards catering for the more mainstream market has been mainly driven by an increased demand for such products from both clients and IFAs alike. The premium service that London & Colonial are renowned for providing can now be offered at ’low cost’ prices with the benefits of streamlined electronic processing afforded by the Platform partnership.
The new Multi-Platform SIPP and Multi-Platform Open Annuity can provide clients with a powerful investment proposition that can flex according to their changing circumstances, with Cofunds being only one of the carefully selected Platform providers currently available to investors.
With the launch of these two new products, London & Colonial are rapidly positioning themselves as a key player in the mid range market place when it comes to service, price and product innovation.
For further information about these, or any of their other product offerings, call 0203 640 6840.
-ENDS-
Notes to Editors
About London & Colonial
London & Colonial specialises in self-invested products for both UK residents and persons resident overseas.
The London & Colonial Group includes
(1) London & Colonial Holdings Limited – UK parent company
(2) London & Colonial Services Limited which is regulated by the UK Financial Services Authority and operates SIPPs and SSASs
(3) London & Colonial Assurance PLC which is regulated by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (matching UK standards) and which offers Open Annuities, QROP Annuities and Open Offshore Bonds
(4) L&C (Administration Services 2) Limited and London & Colonial (Trustee Services) Limited which are both based in Gibraltar and offer the EU SIPP.
About Cofunds
Cofunds is the leading independent investment platform provider for advisers and other financial institutions, with assets under administration of £45bn (as at 18.10.12). It is an independent Platform providing flexible, reliable and convenient administration and management services for advisers and their clients as well as dealing and custody services for financial institutions. It does not offer investment management or advice, nor does it compete with advisers by offering its services direct to the end client. Cofunds exists to serve the needs of institutions, advisers, their clients, and fund managers.
Cofunds is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.