Sovereign replaces old funds

Sovereign has rolled out its new range of savings products to replace many of its older, high fee funds which were closed last year.

Tuesday, April 12th 2005, 6:27AM

The new multi-manager, multi-style product, promoted under the name AssetArchitect are a series of superannuation funds and retail unit trusts, which interestingly have been combined into one investment statement.

Besides replacing the old, high fee funds, AssetArchitect is a step in the process of rationalising the raft of funds Sovereign currently has on its books.

ASB Group Investments’ Burton Shipley says the managers in all the old funds will be changed so Sovereign is only using the managers it has selected for AssetArchitect, and then they will be closed.

He says the process will start with the smaller funds then move through to the bigger ones.

One of the key selling points of the AssetArchitect, according to Shipley, are their simplicity.

AssetArchitect is in two parts. The unit trust-based investment plan which is a series of four diversified funds and six sector funds, including an absolute return fund managed by Tower, and a Colonial First State managed global property fund.

The second part is the superannuation fund-based retirement plan that gives investors the ability to leave up to 40% of their investments unlocked and the balance locked in until the investor has reached 55 years of age.

It is made up of four diversified funds.

Sovereign has also developed a bunch of new tools for advisers to help them promote AssetArchitect. These include a personal financial planning booklet, a flyer on the power of compounding, a slide rule type retirement calculator and a “future planner” calculator that is like a small wallplanner that has stickers where people can mark financial goals.

Sovereign has also launched two new health insurance products to replace MajorCare. For more information see Insurance News

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