AJ looks to play greater role in distribution

Armstrong Jones has confirmed its plans to start offering risk products and to play a more active role in distribution through helping financial planning firms.

Monday, February 15th 1999, 12:00AM

Armstrong Jones has confirmed its plans to start offering risk products and to play a more active role in distribution through helping financial planning firms.
Managing director Paul Fyfe says AJ will, from March, start offering insurance products. He says this move takes AJ from being a fund manager to a financial services company.
It will be offering products such as term life, trauma and income protection policies, but won't be entering any of the life assurance product ranges such as whole of life or endowment policies.

AJ won't be taking on any of the reassurance risk with its life products.
On the distribution front AJ has for some time been looking at how it can play a more active role in selling its unit trust and superannuation funds.
Since it established operations in New Zealand 10 years ago, AJ has said selling products is the role of the adviser, and not the fund manager.
The firm has looked ways to improve distribution and has settled on building strategic alliances with advisory firms that sell AJ products.
"It won't be a franchised group," Fyfe says.
He says Wealthy and Wise director David Greenslade will be contracted to help run this operation.
Good Returns understands Greenslade intends to sell his business to fellow Wealthy and Wise adviser Darryl Edmonds.
Fyfe says the strategic alliance model AJ is setting up is unique and the company intends to provide support in are technology, administration and marketing.
"I don't think there is any model out there that looks like this," he says. "There's nothing like it in the world."
The level of support offered will be correlated to how much AJ business and adviser writes.
AJ's Private Portfolio Service master fund, which it established with AdvisorGroup, will be the key product in this arrangement. Currently the fund has $170 million under management and it is licensed to 24 firms outside of AdvisorGroup.
Fyfe aims to have built strategic alliances with 40-45 firms within three years.

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