Tavistock Investments will roll out a “low-cost” platform service in the next few weeks.
It will be used by the clients of the group’s advisers or of the asset management business Tavistock Wealth, the firm said in its interim results for the six months ending 30 September 2020.
If external firms are using Tavistock Wealth to provide part or all their investment proposition, then those clients would be able to access the service as well.
The Tavistock Platform will be rolled out “pre-Christmas”, according to the firm’s chief executive Brian Raven.
‘Ludicrously inefficient’
He told International Adviser: “We operate within a very fragmented industry. So, as part of our business is about asset management, we are distributing funds, and model portfolios via numerous different platforms.
“It’s complex and cumbersome to operate and not particularly in the best interest of clients, because a lot of those platforms are pretty expensive.
“We just took the view that, for clients of our own advisers, we’d like to get in the business of providing them with a platform service at the lowest possible cost.
“We’re not looking to make money out of the platform service, we’re looking to provide that sort of back office element of the client relationship at a very low cost.
“We’re not aspiring to run a sort of public platform, making it available to everyone. It’s a service we’re providing to our clients.
“Our funds are on 25 platforms; I think we are able to run model portfolios only on eight of those. And the efficiency with which you can run those models is clearly constrained by the functionality and the process applied by those platforms,” Raven added.
Long-term aims
The move comes months after Tavistock said it is “interested in identifying acquisition opportunities in the wealth and asset management sectors in the UK and Europe”.
“This gets us to the position where we can provide a holistic end-to-end solution for UK retail clients,” Raven said. “We’re ambitious business. We have been on hold in terms of pursuing potential acquisitions for the last couple of years, whilst we consolidated the businesses that we have brought into the group and got to the point to deliver the platform solution.
“We’re looking to get back into the business of acquiring, potentially advisory businesses, asset management businesses or businesses that do both.
“Don’t expect us to be announcing something in the next month or two. But certainly, it’s where we’re currently turning our attention, as well as organic growth.”
International plans
IA also asked Tavistock’s chief executive about the firm’s ambitions outside of the UK, and what might be next for the business internationally.
Raven said: “We have an international element in mind, but we want to get it all right in the UK before we go forth into the rest of the world.
“Where advisers have clients who are resident overseas, then we will look to do what we can for them. We do have our products and funds available in multiple currencies, in US dollars and Euros, where we have some investments.
“But we’re not yet at the point where we’re really pursuing that as a key part of our strategy. We’re still a small company. Let’s build it in the UK first before we take it overseas.”
