UK-listed Standard Life has today officially launched its stand-alone wealth management business under chief executive Richard Charnock.

UK-listed Standard Life has officially launched its stand-alone wealth management business under chief executive Richard Charnock. Standard Life Wealth was soft launched around three months ago to test systems and processes, a rigorous process that the new business has passed with flying colours, Mr Charnock told WealthBriefing in an exclusive interview. The business model is based around discretionary asset management for high net worth individuals with £2 million of investable assets, with at least £1 million liquid and seeks to leverage the fund management capabilities of Standard Life Investments, with its £150 billion in assets under management. Standard Life has high hopes of its new wealth management business which it has afforded the status of a company within the group, separate from Standard Life Investments. Not only is it looking to expand organically through its existing Asian and Canadian footprint, it is actively looking for acquisitions. “The supply of potential wealth management acquisitions is surprisingly limited at the moment given the potential uncertainties in the short term,” said the former Williams de Broe chief executive. Currently, the only client facing office is based in the City’s landmark “Gherkin” building but another will be added in Edinburgh in the fourth quarter. The company’s middle office, too, is based in Edinburgh and the back office has been outsourced to Brown Brothers Harriman. If all goes to plan, 2009 will see a UK regional expansion, Mr Charnock told WealthBriefing. Along with the intermediaries channel, which throughout the group is very well developed, the new company deals direct with clients through around 15 relationship managers. This is expected to grow to around 25 by the end of the year. “One of our differentiators is that we’re plugged into the investment team at SLI and have access to its institutional level research and asset allocation expertise,” said Mr Charnock. “We also have a bias towards absolute return investment strategies tailored to individual private investors. We’ve done substantial research on this and we know it’s what many clients are seeking.” Standard Life Wealth is offering its clients portfolios with multi-goal objectives with a liability-driven investing focus. Benchmarks are cash plus and portfolio holdings are linked to a Strategic Investment Allocation fund that the business has developed. This consists of a derivatives overlay which is blended with multiple alpha sources in an open architecture environment. “We have clients who have perhaps four or five goals within their portfolios, for instance retirement or buying an asset at a future point in time. “We do a thorough assessment of the individual when they first become a client using an advanced quantitive model to assess risk and suitability. This process then produces an optimised alignment of client goals and underlying investments. "There’s no house bias to funds selected and stock picking is also available as part of the client offering, along with fiduciary and tax planning if required and deposit taking and lending through Standard Life Bank."