Patrick Mill, managing director of Alliance Trust Savings
Alliance Trust Savings, a provider of Sipps, Isas and shardealing, has reported assets under administration on its i.nvest platform have reached £5 bn following a sustained period of inflows since the start of the year and continuing adviser interest.
The figure represents a 32 per cent year on year increase in assets under management on the platform, says the company. The group is planning further expansion in 2014 and has been reported to be considering a discretionary fund management (DFM) operation.
Starting the year at £4.05 billion, Alliance Trust Savings has added nearly £1 billion, with growth driven by consolidation from existing customers and strong new client acquisition through the IFA channel. In addition, the company generated an operating profit before tax from continuing operations of £0.2m in the first half of 2013, maintaining the progress made in 2012.
Alliance Trust Savings says it has been a champion of transparent pricing and believes it was one of the first platforms to introduce clean share class funds to advised and direct customers from 31 December 2012. This continued expansion of the Alliance Trust Savings platform means it now offers over 1,800 clean share class funds*, from over 45 fund managers. The majority of the funds have no initial charge.
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Patrick Mill, managing director, Alliance Trust Savings, said: "Hitting £5 billion of assets under administration is a particularly satisfying milestone and although this shows the continued success for Alliance Trust Savings, we regard it as merely a stepping stone to greater things as our business model – and the industry – develops. Our asset growth has been strongest in percentage terms from the IFA channel which is testament to the increasing support we are receiving from advisers.
"We now have over 1,800 clean share classes available on the platform and being champions of transparent charging throughout the platform industry, we believe offering clean funds, alongside our unique flat fee approach, is the simplest and fairest option for investors.
"As legacy fund supermarkets attempt to re-invent themselves in a post-RDR environment, Alliance Trust Savings continues to develop its successful proposition through a pipeline of future developments to maintain its position as a leading wrap platform in both the direct and advised space and our continued profitability illustrates success of this strategy."
Alliance Trust Savings was formed in 1986, partly to meet the challenges posed by radical changes within the UK savings industry at the time, and partly to offer private investors a cost-effective route into Alliance Trust PLC.
