Seven Investment Management chief executive Tom Sheridan noted that the new partnership came at a time of “strong demand from advisers for in specie transfers into offshore bonds”, which he said made sense for many clients.
Last year, L&G’s offshore bond sales grew by a record 463%, helped in part by the growing use by HNW clients of offshore investment plans as “supplementary asset accumulation vehicles” as they plan for their retirement, according to Danny Wynn, director of platforms and policy at Legal & General.
Under the arrangement with 7IM, investors may put 100% of the assets they hold on the 7IM platform into the offshore bond as a fund investment. The 7IM Platform element would then be treated as a fund, and as with any fund, all of the investment would then be able to be allocated to the offshore bond.
Early adopter of platform technology
7IM, the London-based investment company, was among the first UK financial services firms to identify the market potential in wrap platforms, having launched it in 2001.The 7IM Platform, as it is called, is UK-based, and currently has assets under management of more than £3bn.
The link with 7IM is L&G International’s second platform alliance, alongside an existing arrangement with Cofunds, of which L&G is a 25% stakeholder, along with such other investment companies as Jupiter and Threadneedle. Legal & General first linked up with Cofunds in 2005. However, earlier this year, L&G executive director of savings Mark Gregory was quoted as saying the company had decided to end an exclusivity deal it then had with Cofunds, which was seen at the time as possibly paving the way for a launch of an L&G platform.
Charges
Under the arrangement with 7IM, once an individual client’s L&G International Portfolio Bond has been set up on the platform, an asset administration charge of 0.10% would begin to be deducted, quarterly in arrears, from his or her IPB Transaction Account. A dealing charge — currently £29.40 — is also deducted whenever an investment is made into our out of the platform, along with other charges for various other dealings.
