Adviser Advocate, as Leeson calls his new venture, will at the same time help clients to realise “a significant reduction in the costs of distribution for [product] providers”.
Down the road, he says he will look to provide his clients with technical support in handling complex client cases, including inheritance tax matters, QNUPS, EISs and VCTs.
As reported, Leeson set up a consultancy business in May, D & W Management Consulting, to help life companies and wealth managers to navigate the challenges in the UK market that were brought about by the Retail Distribution Review, which came into effect in January. He said the new business would exist alongside the first one, and benefit from inherent synergies.
Adviser Advocate is due to go live on the first of October, at which point it expects to have six specialist relationship managers in place “across the UK”, according to Leeson, who, at least for now, plans to continue to be based in Scotland. He declined to name the relationship managers, noting that he is still conducting interviews.
Adviser Advocate, Leeson says, represents a “major step forward” in supporting financial advisers in the post-RDR market, which, he noted, has left many struggling to cope.
What is more, there is less support available to them, he noted, as a growing number of life companies, facing cost pressures, have reduced the size of their specialist support teams. AXA, for example, made its offshore team redundant in July 2013; while it was revealed earlier this month that Zurich International Life has stopped marketing and accepting new retail business in the UK, with the result that its team of experts will also now be lost to the marketplace.
Prior to joining Axa in 2011, Leeson spent nine years with Prudential, and before that was with Aegon.
