Swiss Life is making a foray into the territory of the banking industry: the Zurich-based life insurer is promoting its new asset-management mandate for private clients and has plans to extend the business further, according to information obtained by finews.ch.
Swiss Life at the end of September launched two wealth management mandates, Swiss Life Premium Delegate and Swiss Life Premium Choice. Since the launch, the company received mandates to open 250 accounts with some 7 million francs, according to information obtained by finews.ch.
«We expect strong growth in coming years,» a company spokesman told finews.ch. Swiss Life currently trains its pension fund advisers for the purpose.
The company also plans to develop the new solutions further and to distribute them via the digital platform myWorld and brokers working for Swiss Life.
Asset Management Expertise
The Swiss Life Asset Managers unit is in charge of the new mandates. It has the experience of managing some 200 billion Swiss francs in customer assets.
The company is charging 0.8 percent of the invested capital for the management of the assets. In addition to the basic fee, customers also have to pay 1.1 to 2 percent in commission.
The new asset management offering for private clients is a foray into the domaine of companies such as Zuercher Kantonalbank (ZKB) or Raiffeisen. ZKB demands the investment of 100,000 francs for a professionally managed fund mandate. Swiss Life by contrast opens accounts with a 1,000 franc investment.
An Interesting Segment
The chase for small fry with standardized products seems little profitable for a big company such as Swiss Life. But a lot of savers leave their assets simply lying idle for no interest at all.
With interest rates below zero persistently, these clients may decide to put their assets in the hands of a professional wealth manager.
In offering the type of product, Swiss Life also has an eye on its online platform myWorld, a platform for investment products, mortgages and legal aid insurance.
Part and Parcel of MyLife
On this platform, Swiss Life clients will find solutions for all their financial needs – and the company also gets to know their customers in much greater detail. The company applies the same strategic approach with institutional clients with the MyLife online platform.
Baloise, another insurer, is equally expanding into asset management, offering its expertise to third-party customers, it said recently.
The Basel-based insurer wants to increase assets under management by at least 5 billion francs within five years and to generate income through commissions.
