Investment ahead for Aegis

MMC says it will invest in Aegis in a way that has not happened for some time under its previous owners, ASB.

Wednesday, December 11th 2019, 6:45AM

Tom Reiher

The deal to purchase the administration and custody business from the bank settled last week. Aegis staff have moved from ASB to a separate office nearby and will move into a new floor of the building housing the MMC offices in March or April next year.

“We are excited to be able to extend our service offering, with the benefit of bringing on existing Aegis advisers, staff and resources to provide scale in private wealth … we are looking to improve the delivery of Aegis services by leveraging our technology and skills to upgrade the existing Aegis platform,” chief executive Tom Reiher said in a statement sent to advisers.

MMC has also recently taken a shareholding in Invsta, an Auckland-based wealth management fintech firm, which he said could create benefits for Aegis advisers.

"We have offered an investor portal to clients since June 2017 which provides our clients’ investors and their advisers with an innovative and intuitive investment reporting tool," Reiher said.

"Of late, our focus has been on delivering a comprehensive suite of investor information via API for those clients who prefer to develop their own web portals – this includes an automated onboarding process and online transacting. For those clients who have been using our investor portal, Invsta’s technology provides the opportunity to step up to the next level. The solution that Invsta have developed uses MMC’s APIs, facilitates onboarding and investment transacting and integrates with our clients’ investment fund offerings. With MMC’s focus on investing in technology, work is already underway with Invsta to offer these very same smart solutions to Aegis advisers and their clients."

MMC has appointed Vedran Babic, currently Fisher Funds chief financial officer, as its new chief executive and Reiher becomes managing director.

"Our initial plan for Aegis is to ensure that it is business as usual. We will be looking to settle in the Aegis staff, with no impact on Aegis advisers and their clients," Reiher said.

"The next step will be starting to engage with advisers to understand the frustrations currently experienced. Our approach will be to look for synergies where they exist, to implement business process efficiencies and to provide a better adviser and client experience. We are committed to continuing to invest in MMC and supporting our teams as we embark on the next chapter of our growth – we have an existing team of very experienced and capable staff members employed right across the business."

Spokeswoman Nicola Tait said there had not been investment in Aegis for some time and MMC was looking at where it could add value in systems and technology.

MMC offers outsourced investment administration services to 29 clients, with funds under administration of more than $60 billion.

Tags: Aegis MMC