The group has rebranded the Isle of Man-based Acordias platform it acquired in April and expanded its range of services to support the international adviser community.
The platform – which is fully live from 11 December – is owned 92.5% by Rowan Dartington, with the remainder held by Acordias’ original owners.
Rowan Dartington has identified 12 target jurisdictions, including Hong Kong, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, Europe, Singapore and parts of the Middle East and China all of which it is licenced to trade in.
Graham Coxell, chairman of Rowan Dartington, said that the platform will fill a previously unoccupied market gap.
“We estimate there is about £500bn of wealth that is owned by English-speaking people, like the expat community, that live abroad,” he said. “There is no real platform of significance supporting the financial adviser community in those markets.
“If you look at the UK there is about £300bn on platforms – in the international market it is about £1-2bn. That is how underdeveloped it is.”
Trevor Cheal, chairman at Ardan said: “While Rowan Dartington is a DFM, we truly believe in open architecture. As such, the platform will provide access not only to funds and direct equities, but also, over time, DFM services, both from Rowan Dartington and other managers.
“Since we bought it six months ago, there has been significant investment into the platform.We have increased the range of funds available on the platform to over 30,000 funds and are using Rowan Darlington’s stockbroking capabilities to provide the ability to trade global equities.. Over the next three to six months we plan to roll out access to DFMs, offshore bonds, qualifying recognised overseas pensions schemes and self-invested personal pensions.”
Positioned for the int’l market
Tim Cockerill, investment director at Rowan Dartington, said the platform’s portfolios, once launched, will operate on the same basis as the company’s existing UK versions.
“We already have five main models – they are all risk-profiled between low and high and there is a collective model portfolio for each of those risk profiles,” he explained. “With Ardan we will do the same, just in the offshore space.
“What we are looking at doing is building models, initially collective models, based on what we already do but designed to be sold to the expat community.
So how will the platform account for varying tax structures from country to country?
“We are aware that different jurisdictions have different tax regimes and requirements,” Cockerill said. “We know we won’t be able to produce a model portfolio which we can sell in any country in the world – it won’t happen. But what we can do is put together model portfolios that suit the needs of what we think will be a large client base and are for sale in a number of jurisdictions.”
He explained: “Hypothetically, if you are an expat in, say, Italy, and you want to invest some money, your IFA can go to the Ardan platform and say ‘we can invest your money in this particular model – it suits your profile, it suits your growth, and we buy and sell the funds on your behalf on a discretionary basis’.
“If you then move to Spain you can still access the platform, the model is still the same – that is one of the main attractions. Platforms like this are not really out there at the minute because the market is so fragmented.”
Coxell added: “Suddenly Rowan Dartington is not only positioned well for a UK market, it is also positioned for the English-speaking international market.”
