Insurance giant LV= has set up an investment platform for advisers as part of its plan to increase access to its range of smoothed managed fund (SMF) investments.
The service has been developed using Embark’s platform technology and as part of a white label partnership. The platform will enable advisers to choose to trade its SMF range on Embark’s full investment functionality.
The platform will be accessed directly from LV’s recently launched adviser portal.
LV= SMF range can complement a retirement portfolio and will appeal to people approaching retirement or drawing an income from their pension, especially where advisers want to make recommendations that reduce the volatility of the retirement funds to help improve investor composure for their customers.
‘Unhelpful’
Clive Bolton, managing director of protection, savings and retirement at LV=, said: “LV’s range of smoothed managed funds are popular with advisers seeking access to investment solutions that materially reduce volatility for more cautious investors who are less comfortable living with investment risk.
“The funds’ smoothing mechanism is unique in the market, and based on the previous 26-week daily rolling averaging of the underlying fund price. It is therefore easy to understand, simple for advisers to explain to their clients and in smoothing out the day-to-day volatility of the markets enables them to be more confident about how they can design and provide a more composed investment experience for their customers.
“Up until now advisers typically have to make a choice to shape a client’s investment solutions using either a provider’s ’off-platform’ insured products alongside other selected fund options versus an ‘on-platform’ wider range of fund options with a typically more digitised and efficient user journey.
“We think that this on and off-platform separation is unhelpful and that advisers should increasingly be able to efficiently access the benefits of both our insured options such as LV= smoothed managed funds and also our fixed term annuities, alongside wider on-platform funds options, including modelled portfolios and discretionary fund solutions.
“Through our partnership with Embark and by deploying their award-winning technology and services inside our adviser support and user journey, we’re removing that separation; offering more flexibility for advisers to build solutions that best serve their customers’ needs and preferences and we believe will be of increasing appeal for advisers looking for ways to reduce volatility by accessing an element of smoothing into a client’s investment portfolio.
“Access via platform technology is part of a series of improvements made over the last couple of years to update the SMF range and make it easier for advisers to write business with LV=.”
