Wealth manager and private bank Coutts has formed a partnership with asset management giant BlackRock, as the NatWest Group looks to reduce the cost of investing for its 12.5 million clients it services.
The relationship will see the launch of six exclusive funds for clients of Coutts and the broader NatWest Group, consisting of three active funds, which are US equities, UK equities, Global Investment Grade Credit, and three index funds, which are US equities, UK equities and Europe ex-UK equities.
The Coutts investment committee will set each fund’s investment strategy and will maintain responsibility for all decisions relating to asset allocation.
BlackRock will use its independent third-party manager research platform to select managers for the three active funds, while the three index funds will be managed in-house by BlackRock. All six funds will be run on BlackRock’s risk management platform, Aladdin.
They will be used by the private bank and wealth manager within its existing investment propositions and are set to launch from mid-November.
Costs
This is the latest development in Coutts’ strategy to reduce the cost of investing for clients.
In recent weeks, the private bank and wealth manager has redeveloped its advice fee structure, meaning clients only pay a one-off flat fee for investment advice with no ongoing implementation fees and also reduced the cost to invest across the wider NatWest Group’s ‘Invest’ platform with a new charge of just 0.15% for investments up to £1m ($1.29m, €1.1m).
Peter Flavel, chief executive of Coutts, said: “Investments in technology have been vital for us to find new ways of passing savings onto our clients and making investing more attractive and appropriate for clients at all stages of their financial journey.
“We have said it before, but ultimately cost should never be a barrier to investing and we have a responsibility to do whatever we can to help our customers realise that fact. BlackRock’s platform will benefit our clients significantly.
“Its scale and global research capabilities means our asset management team have the best possible tools at their disposal to do what they do best – make clever, market-beating investment decisions. I’m proud to be in a position to present clients with not only savings on the cost to invest, but with greater investment opportunities too.”
