Archive press releases

Skandia today announces that it is removing all fund manager initial charges from its Selestia Investment Solutions platform from the 1st January 2009. Fund manager initial charges are applied by some platforms when investors purchase funds and are paid by the platform to fund groups. As part of its drive to simplify the charging structure on its platform Skandia has been working with fund groups to remove all of these charges because they compromise customer outcomes.

Q3 sales figures from Skandia show that UK Fixed Interest and Cash / Money Market funds were the second and third best selling sectors on its Selestia Investment Solutions platform. However, UK equity was the top selling sector which shows that while investors are clearly adjusting their attitude to risk as a result of the market volatility there has not been a widespread exodus from equity funds.

Skandia UK and Offshore today announces an impressive increase in profit of 14% to £91 million for the first six months of 2008. This increase demonstrates the resilience of Skandia’s business model which has enabled it to continue to generate strong positive net client cash flows of £1.1 billion for the half year, despite difficult market conditions in the UK.

The outcome of the Retail Distribution Review must be applied to the entire financial services market to avoid consumers being confused about the type of advice or service they are paying for, says Skandia. Consumers will not differentiate the investment advice they receive under the new RDR rules from advice on products currently outside the scope of the RDR. As consumers will not be aware that different rules apply to different product areas they will perceive that they have received the same service when in reality they have not.

Skandia today announces that it is planning to launch a unique range of six risk-targeted MultiManager funds that will be constructed to match the expected volatility of six different investor risk profiles. The innovative range of funds will be called Spectrum and will be the only risk-targeted fund range in the market to invest in both existing retail funds (fund-of-funds) and segregated investment mandates (manager-of-managers).

Skandia UK and Offshore today announces strong net client cash flows of £3.9 billion for 2007 and an increase in profit on an IFRS* basis of 29% to £173 million. Skandia believes its strategy of designing products and financial solutions solely for distribution via financial advisers is key to this success in an increasingly challenging market.

Skandia UK and Offshore today announces strong net client cash flows of £3.2 billion for the first nine months of 2007, driven by innovative product launches and the increasing demand from advisers for open-architecture platforms. Skandia maintains its position that net client cash flow is the key measure that the success of product providers should be judged on.