Britannia needs you - a solid opportunity for advisers

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Widely known for international pension transfers, NZBritannia is now offering investment opportunities to help Kiwis retire better and is on the hunt for advisers to join its Integral Master Trust.

Wednesday, November 3rd 2021, 12:04PM 1 Comment

Gavin Dixon.

NZBritannia has grown from a niche company offering pension transfers from the UK to New Zealand - a complicated job that no one else wanted to do back in the day - to a trusted provider of financial services that helps its clients plan and invest for their retirement, says BritanniaNZ's chief executive Gavin Dixon.

While it continues its pension transfer business its focus now is on retirement planning and investment and is offering advisers an opportunity to provide five funds to the market with its Integral Master Trust (IMT) products.

BritanniaNZ's operations general manager Michael Pipe says it's exciting times for the company and while it's a smaller player in the New Zealand market it wants to grow its adviser base with Pipe saying their IMT offering sets advisers up for long-term success by offering them a one-stop-shop that will meet the needs of 99% of clients.

"The IMT has been around for just over 10 years and I was there when it was created...and am proud to now manage the adviser and customer proposition.

"Its purpose is to provide financial advisers with a solution that allows them to provide value through financial advice rather than them trying to find value through stock picking or combing.

"It frees up time for the adviser to drill down into the individual clients' goals or give them more time to get out and find new business," says Pipe.

IMT investments are managed by leading New Zealand and international fund managers Harbour Asset Management, ANZ Investments, Franklin Templeton, IOOF and Dimensional Fund Advisors.

"It's important that there is no one single solution for our advisers and there are options available to suit all of their clients' needs - at the same time without flooding them with unnecessary and irrelevant choice," Pipe says.

"Now we’re looking for advisers who want to offer its many benefits to their clients."

Dixon says it was around 2012 when all of Britannia's pension money started to get invested into the IMT so the team have a lot of experience with the IMT investment philosophy.

"Our Britannia advisers say to me that the IMT philosophy is a very easy thing for them to explain to their clients, to have confidence in when they speak to their clients and for their clients to understand.

"So they were able to focus on what the end game is for their clients - the product being the means to that end."

Dixon says when IOOF decided to divest from the New Zealand market, and as Britannia was a major IMT client, taking over the IMT was a natural fit for the company.

"We've got a product that advisers have used for over a decade and has been excellent over that time.

"There are a lot of new advisers coming into the business or having to reshape their business due to the new FAP landscape and we think it's important we show them we have an alternative here that will allow them to go and do what financial advisers do - which is provide financial advice - by making sure they can minimise the time they need to spend on things like compliance or making sure they have a consistent, easily understandable investment solution."

Dixon says he did not think his board or shareholders would appreciate him sitting on what he calls the world's best-kept secret.

"It's such a good product, it does what it says on the tin."

IMT Investment options:

Defensive Fund: To aim to preserve capital through investing in cash and fixed interest investments.

Diversified 40 Fund: To aim to generate consistent returns utilising a diversified portfolio with a slight bias towards defensive assets.

Diversified 60 Fund: To aim to generate long-term capital growth utilising a diversified portfolio with a slight bias towards growth assets.

Global Equities Fund: To aim to achieve long-term capital growth through a structured exposure to listed global shares.

Focused Growth Fund: To aim to achieve long-term capital growth through consistent exposure to the global shares asset class, with concentrated exposure to large growth companies.

Tags: BritanniaNZ Financial advice Gavin Dixon IMT investment advice investment fund

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