Jersey-based Praemium International is providing the administration, execution and custody capability for the managed portfolio service, or International MPS, as Brooks Macdonald calls it.
The new service is said to have been inspired by Brooks Macdonald Asset Management’s UK onshore managed portfolio service, and will provide financial advisers with a choice of four actively-managed, risk-rated, segregated investment portfolios to recommend to their non-UK clients.
Unlike the onshore Brooks Macdonald MPS, the international service offers clients multi-currency options, allowing their investments to be made in sterling, euros or US dollars.
Investors will also benefit from active asset management by Brooks Macdonald’s Channel Islands-based investment management team, as well as from exposure to all asset classes, Brooks Macdonald told International Adviser, in unveiling the new arrangement.
This greater asset class exposure option is described as making greater investment diversification possible for investors than otherwise would likely be available, “ensuring a greater spread of investment risk”, BMI said.
By having Praemium handle these tasks, BMI said, it will be better able to focus on managing its range of discretionary model portfolios for advisers with international and expatriate clients.
The platform system also enables advisors and individual investors to be able to view their investments at any time, according to BMI.
Spearpoint acquisition
Until last year, Brooks Macdonald was primarily a UK-focused wealth manager, with regional offices in such cities and county centres as Manchester, Edinburgh, York, Tunbridge Wells and Leamington Spa. As reported, in November 2012 it arranged to buy Jersey- and Guernsey-based Spearpoint Ltd, a stockbroker with retirement-planning capabilities.
As a result of that acquisition, Brooks Macdonald has begun developing a strategy aimed at catering increasingly for an international clientele, as its new international managed portfolio service suggests.
At the end of September, the group had funds under management of £5.37bn.
Four risk/investment objective options
BMI said clients of its new International MPS will be able to choose between four investment portfolios that cover a range of investment objectives and risk profiles: International MPS Defensive, Cautious Balanced, Balanced and Growth.
John Davey, the former Spearpoint head who is now chief executive of Brooks Macdonald International, said the new international managed portfolio service had been tailored to accommodate the company’s growing international client base.
Based in Jersey, Praemium International is a subsidiary of Melbourne-based, ASX-listed platform provider Praemium. As reported here yesterday, it has recently agreed a deal with the Jersey-based international division of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), to provide platform services to its own expatriate clients.
