Skandia scraps Selestia brand

The Selestia platform is to be re-named Skandia Investment Solutions and used as the basis for Skandia’s new wealth management platform.

The early conclusion of the planning team set up recently to evaluate Skandia’s wealth management proposition was it should be an evolution of the current platform.

It also highlighted the demand from financial advisers for a white labelled platform solution powered by Skandia.

The name change follows feedback from advisers that the 'Skandia' name is the best for these services in the adviser marketplace.

However, the group has done a U-turn from its position when the merged Selestia/Skandia platform launched on August 15, 2007, that the Selestia brand(now ten years old) held more sway with advisers.

The merger was part of the ongoing integration process following the takeover of Skandia by Selestia's parent company Old Mutual at the beginning of 2006.

In April this year, IFAonline broke the news that CEO of Skandia UK Brett Williams, founder of Selestia, was to leave the role to launch a new Wealth Management Unit for the group.

He announced he would step down from direct supervision of the former Selestia platform, but it now appears this platform will be the starting point for his new role.

The unit's focus is on advisers looking to service and take on more clients with around £1-10m in assets.

Skandia says the planning team for the unit will continue to establish timelines, service and functionality requirements. It was originally stated that its findings would be reported 6-9 months after the unit launched on August 1, 2008.

Skandia Investment Solutions will sit alongside the Skandia Life platform which offers advisers open architecture life and pensions products. Combined, these two platforms have over £40bn funds under management.

The platforms will offer two different charging and remuneration options for advisers.

Nick Poyntz-Wright, chief executive of Skandia UK will head up both the Skandia Investment Solutions and Skandia Life platforms.

He comments: “Investment platforms will play an increasingly important role within the industry and we are committed to developing our proposition in line with the needs of financial advisers and their clients.

"Aligning the brands of all our UK businesses is an important step in delivering a simple, integrated proposition for advisers and our decision to white label our platform for advisers shows our commitment to putting them in pole position."