Sovereign confirms Select sale

Sovereign has finally confirmed its intention to sell its Select Wealth Management service to JMIS, as first reported by Good Returns.

Tuesday, July 7th 2015, 5:34AM

Sovereign chief officer customer management and product, Rebecca Russell, says changes to regulation and the introduction of the DIMS regime promoted the decision to sell the business to JMIS.

Select has $600 million in funds under management and JMIS has been the independent consultant since the service was launched in 1998.

She says the business has been under review for nine months and “as a result of this review, we determined the best course of action for Sovereign would be to transition the service to a third party."

Sovereign is working with JMIS and the FMA through the proposed transition.

Russell said Sovereign had worked closely with the Financial Markets Authority on its application for an exemption from applying for a DIMS, which has been granted, allowing Select to continue to operate as a DIMS through the transition period.

“Select is a success story for Sovereign. We believe that there is further opportunity for Select to grow, but would benefit from a specialist in the area to make this happen.

“JMIS is a natural choice to transition the Select service to. As a specialist investment provider to institutions and high net worth individuals, JMIS is perfectly positioned to not only maintain the service, but to continue to grow Select.”

JMIS director Andrew Kelleher says the intended transition of Select to its business creates an opportunity to expand its service offering to clients and also to continue to grow the service.

“We have always viewed Select as a well-run, professional investment management service and we have been pleased to see its healthy growth over the past 17 years. We have identified opportunities for growth – but at the moment our focus is to work with Sovereign, the Select team and the FMA to affect a smooth transition process.

Tags: FMA Select Investments Sovereign