UK-based wealth manager Tavistock Investments will launch a low-cost platform by the end of this year, media reports said. Chief executive Brian Raven confirmed that the new Tavistock Platform will be rolled out ‘pre-Christmas’.
Tavistock previously said that the platform will help the firm reach £5 billion in assets by 2025.
Brian Raven told International Adviser, “We operate within a very fragmented industry. So, as part of our business is about asset management, we are distributing funds, and model portfolios via numerous different platforms. It’s complex and cumbersome to operate and not particularly in the best interest of clients because a lot of those platforms are pretty expensive.
“We just took the view that, for clients of our own advisers, we’d like to get in the business of providing them with a platform service at the lowest possible cost. We’re not looking to make money out of the platform service, we’re looking to provide that sort of back-office element of the client relationship at a very low cost. We’re not aspiring to run a sort of public platform, making it available to everyone. It’s a service we’re providing to our clients.”
European asset manager’s average asset fell by 1.5 percent during the first half of this year. During the same period, fees also shrank by 9 percent. A survey carried out by credit rating agency Moody’s revealed that average profit margins (EBITDA) dropped to 27 percent, from 30 percent in the second half of 2019, due to lower management fees.