Wraps

“Wrap” Accounts are a relatively new way to administer your investments. Wraps enable private clients and their professional advisers to streamline portfolio administration significantly, allowing both parties to concentrate on the more important matters of achieving their financial plans, goals and aspirations.

There are many other platforms on the market, but few enable us to agree one charge with our clients for managing their investments and then be able to select virtually ANY investment available in the UK. In this way there can be no chance of "commission bias". Most other platforms limit the number of funds available and have less transparent charges.

What are the Benefits of a Wrap Account?

• Wrap accounts are available on the Internet to give immediate information, meaning that you can review your wrap account information 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 52 weeks per year

• Most existing funds can be transferred "in specie" and ISA funds retain their tax advantaged status

• Wrap accounts allows investors to adjust investment goals as income and lifestyle change without high cost

• Wrap accounts have a transparent charging structure - this is in line with the latest Financial Services Authority thinking on Customer Agreed Remuneration.

• The popularity of wrap accounts outside the UK is widely attributed to their flexibility. One of the principal advantages is that whole families can organise their affairs together. Whilst they maintain their individual aims and objectives, the arrangements take full account of each other’s situations.

• Completing your tax return is a much easier task with your investments all stored in a wrap account

• Cash can also be held and usually at a very competitive interest rate

• Portfolio performance can easily be reviewed and rebalancing done in a very streamlined manner

• You no longer receive reams of meaningless and expensive paperwork every six months to pick through!

Make contact with us to discuss how we can help

What’s included?

Most investments and pensions can be catered for via a Wrap. Essentially the Wrap account should be viewed as an administrative umbrella – you do not invest in the assets of the Wrap provider nor does the Wrap provider own you assets – you own them and they are invested with the various underlying fund management groups which your adviser and you have selected.

As all investments are held within one “wrapper” although in different accounts (ISA, Pension etc), once an investment strategy has been agreed, the Wrap enables the rebalancing of this to match the agreed Attitude to Risk of your portfolio to be achieved very simply without the need to buy and sell individual holdings yourself.

There is a simple fee charging basis, agreed on an individual basis with you, and this enables substantial discounts to be negotiated by the Wrap provider from the fund management groups.

Essentially, Wraps move the concept away from product driven sales to an advice process, the Wrap account simply being the mechanism whereby investments are bought and administered.

Owing to the flexibility of the accounts, whilst dealing charges may be lower, administration costs ongoing may be higher, so if you are unlikely to use all the features of a Wrap then you could be paying for things you will never need or use. Generally speaking, if you have investment worth > £40,000 then a Wrap may be suitable.

These services are only available through Independent Financial Advisers such as ourselves. Wraps are not a product in the conventional sense but merely an effective way of handling investment products through a centralised buying, selling and reporting service. By opening a wrap account for the investment portfolio, we can arrange all the investments, including cash, on terms that will often be better than those that could be obtained by dealing direct with the individual investment institutions chosen.

How we are paid

We taken our customer agreed remuneration from the cash held in your wrap account. We are NOT paid by the fund providers through commission payments. Our on-going servicing costs are covered by a quarterly adviser fee, the level of which will depend on our individual agreement.

Migration of Existing Investments

Having established a wrap portfolio it is a relatively simple task to transfer existing holdings to this medium. Most providers will transfer "in specie" in that they merely migrate existing fund holdings across to the wrap. Others however will not do "in specie" transfers (in the case of ISAs, although most do) and in these circumstances the assets are sold and cash is sent across to the wrap. Where the latter applies, this does not prevent the funds retaining their tax advantaged status providing the monies are reinvested through  the wrap without too much delay

We do not normally take any fees for moving your existing investments into the wrap, but for any first switches of funds which were originally transferred in specie, or repurchases of those transferred in cash, we will take our normal fee.

Transact is the preferred WRAP platform for Asset Investment Management in Norwich, Norfolk. Asset Investment Management Ltd are financial advisers using Transact in Norfolk. As Financial Advisers using Transact in Norfolk and Suffolk, transfers of investments from other fund platforms or fund supermarkets can be made to your portfolio, even ISA and PEP funds.