UK Life and pension under wraps

CHAPTER 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Comparative markets

Market snapshot

Trends and developments

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES

CHAPTER 2 INTRODUCTION

What is this report about?

Who is the target reader?

How to use this report

CHAPTER 3 LIFE AND PENSIONS UNDER WRAPS?

What is a wrap account?

1. Encompassing all tax regimes

2. Full coverage of all available products and assets

3. Full suite of financial tools

4. Full functionality through an online platform

5. Pricing transparency

When is a wrap not quite a wrap?

When it's a fund supermarket

When it's an aggregation account

When it's an offset product

When it's a multi manager fund

When it's an online wealth management offering

And when is it a kind of wrap?

When it's a separately managed account (SMA)

When it's a mutual fund wrap

When it's a pension-based wrap

And when it's a full wrap! (see above for a description of a full wrap)

Other products under wraps

Mortgages

Cash accounts

The potential implications of wraps for life and pensions providers

Distribution

Wrap distribution through the financial advice/ brokerage channel

Wrap distribution through the bancassurance channel

Products

Increased focus on performance

Costs

Sales costs

Platform costs

Barriers to the creation of a wrap account market in Europe

CHAPTER 4 COMPARATIVE MARKETS

Introduction

Key findings

Developed wrap markets

The US

Lessons/ comparisons for the UK market:

Australia

Lessons/ comparisons for the UK market:

The UK compared to the other major European countries

Unit-linked/ non unit-linked split

Distribution Channels

Presence of brokerage/ financial advice channels

Awareness of wrap products

Customers

CHAPTER 5 MARKET SNAPSHOT

Introduction

Key findings

Products - The UK product landscape is very attractive for wraps

Asset classes (with-profits/ unit-linked split)

Products distributors would expect to include in wrap

Customers - there is a large potential customer base for wraps in the UK

The IFA Channel

Awareness and take up of wraps amongst IFAs

Are wraps suitable for all IFAs?

IFA attitudes to wrap providers

Overall market - more work to be done before take off

CHAPTER 6 TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS

Key findings

Products

Life and pensions will be part of wraps in the UK

Developing open and closed life and pension wraps

Open - Exchange

Closed - Aqera and other providers

When will life and pensions products be wrappable?

Channels

IFA channel

Benefits

Threats

Banks/ bancassurance

Technology

Customers

Higher class wraps

Will wraps be restricted to the HNW market in the UK?

Revenues

Regulation

Depolarization

Stakeholder products

Pensions simplification

Forecast market size

Life and pensions providers can have a major impact on the market

CHAPTER 7 APPENDIX

DATA

Products

Customers

Providers

Distributors

Market

Trends and Developments

Definitions

Fund supermarket

HNW

Independent financial adviser (IFA)

Individual Savings Account (ISA)

Mass market

Mutual fund

Mass affluent

Personal Equity Plans (PEPs)

Private pension

SIPP

Stakeholder pension

Unit-linked life insurance

With-profits policy

Whole life insurance

Wrap Account

Research methodology

Datamonitor's IFA Survey March 2004

Datamonitor's custom research capabilities

Current publications

Forthcoming publications

SPP writing team

List of Tables

Table 1: Wrappable products, forecast development timescale

Table 2: Wrappable products, forecast development timescale

Table 3: Wrappable products, forecast development timescale

Table 4: UK wrappable assets market, 2002

Table 5: Life and pensions insurance premium income linked/ non linked split, 2003

Table 6: If you offered a wrap platform whose products would you expect it to contain?

Table 7: What products would you expect to able to place within a wrap in the future?

Table 8: UK HNW and affluent populations

Table 9: What proportion of your client-base do you estimate will invest in wraps? (weighted average responses by channel)

Table 10: What proportion of your client-base do you estimate will invest in wraps?

Table 11: What type of customers do you foresee investing through wraps?

Table 12: What type of wrap provider would you prefer?

Table 13: Distribution channels for life and pensions business in the UK, 2002

Table 14: Do you know what a wrap account is?

Table 15: Do you currently offer wraps?

Table 16: Do you or the network to which you belong have any plans to offer wrap accounts?

Table 17: What is your attitude to the following statements?

Table 18: If you were to offer a wrap product what pricing structure do you prefer?

Table 19: Do you agree with the statement that wrap accounts will force product providers to lower their prices?

Table 20: What is your attitude to the statement 'wrap accounts will be widely adopted in your country'?

Table 21: Assets under management for pensions for wealthy individuals

Table 22: How the assets under administration in 'wrap like' products might grow, 2003-2008

List of Figures

Figure 1: The 'holy grail' of wrap services incorporates five key elements, 2004

Figure 2: Is that a wrap? Offerings in the wrap space

Figure 3: Based upon an estimated growth rate of 40 per cent, wrap assets in the US would only have been around USD71bn in 1996

Figure 4: UK France and Germany lead Europe in terms of wrappable assets

Figure 5: The majority of life and pensions premiums in Europe are not unit-linked, 2003

Figure 6: The size of the independent brokerage channel in the UK made it the ideal first European target for wrap platforms

Figure 7: Very few European distributors are aware of wrap accounts, 2004

Figure 8: Awareness of wrap accounts grew very rapidly in the UK IFA market, 2004

Figure 9: German distributors are confident of the future of wraps, 2004

Figure 10: Spain lags behind the rest of the Europe in the proportion of the population that are affluent, 2003

Figure 11: Italy and the UK are the two markets which are best positioned for the development of a wrap market

Figure 12: Private pensions and direct equities play a bigger role in the UK than in most European countries, 2002

Figure 13: Unit-linked investment is in the ascendancy in the UK market

Figure 14: Indirect and direct equity products are those that most UK distributors expect to be wrappable, alongside cash

Figure 15: There are nearly 5.5m mass affluent customers in the UK

Figure 16: A large proportion of UK distributors foresee a strong future for wrap products, 2003

Figure 17: A large number of UK customers see wraps as a product for all types of investor

Figure 18: The UK has the largest independent brokerage channel of any of the major European countries, 2004

Figure 19: 34 per cent of the IFAs surveyed currently offer some form of wrap to their customers

Figure 20: 27 per cent of those not currently offering wraps are planning to do so in the future

Figure 21: Most IFAs would prefer an independent wrap platform

Figure 22: Most IFAs believe that wraps will save them time, 2004

Figure 23: Opinion is mixed about how IFAs would like to be remunerated

Figure 24: Only half of UK distributors believe that there will be significant downward pressure on provider fees through wraps

Figure 25: In the UK, 58 per cent of distributors believe that wrap accounts will be widely adopted

Figure 26: Wrap platforms are a multiprovider product

Figure 27: Estimated impact of wrap accounts on shares of revenues from investment products sold through the IFA channel

Figure 28: Effect of wraps on life and pensions companies cost and revenues in the UK

Figure 29: SIPPs look set to increase their share of UK pensions post simplification

Figure 30: By 2008, assets held within 'wrap like' services will grow to around GBP150bn

Figure 31: A wide variety of IFA types were questioned

Figure 32: Datamonitor's core consulting capabilities