Introduction
The wrap market in the UK is at a fledgling stage, however there is
unprecedented activity with many competitors targeting this market. Wrap
accounts have the potential to dramatically alter the financial services
landscape in the UK and specifically the way life and pensions products are
marketed, sold and priced and the revenues that are gained from them.
Scope of this report
- UK. Includes comparative studies of US, Australian and major European
markets;
- 'Wrappable' asset sizing and allocation, distribution channel sizing,
distributor attitude analysis;
- Survey of 100 UK IFAs.
Research and analysis highlights
The UK is the most attractive market for wrap accounts in Europe. The main
factor that makes the UK unusually attractive is the fact that the UK's
distribution market is dominated by IFAs. It also offers a large pool of assets,
many of which are highly suitable for inclusion in wrap platforms, for example
direct equity.
In established wrap markets such as the US and Australia wraps are focused on
equities. However life and pensions companies in the UK need to operate on the
basis that their products will be wrappable and that wrap accounts will form an
important part of their market in the future. This requires the development of a
coherent wrap strategy.
The key to the wrap market is partnerships, and life and pensions companies
should be prepared to outsource, partner and make their own systems as open and
widely compatible as possible. Those that adopt an insular and secretive
approach are likely to induce unnecessary development costs and be quickly
outpaced by market developments.
Key reasons to read this report
- Analyses distributor attitudes that will shape the market for wrap
products;
- Gives detailed analysis of how life and pensions competitors will be
impacted by the development of the wrap market in the UK;
- Delivers specific action points about the best strategies for life
companies to adopt going forward.
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