MLC & NAB Wealth will leverage off its existing product range as well as develop new offerings as part of a further push into the retirement solutions sector.
As part of the move, the wealth manager will form a specialist retirement solutions team, lead by former Axa Australia head of superannuation and retirement incomes, Andrew Barnett.
MLC Investment Platforms executive general manager Michael Clancy said the team will focus on “specific retirement solutions”.
“We’re carefully using that term, whilst some of the answer to this is going to be specific product, we think that is just one component of the broader set of things we need to do around retirement solutions which is products, retirement strategies, education and providing information so there is a whole suit of things that we need to do and Andrew will be heading up the team to develop that set of capabilities for us,” Clancy said.
Clancy said the planned new products were still in early stages of development.
“We’ve got a number of ideas at different stages of development. Some of them are entirely new and some of them are leveraging off existing accumulation products,” he said.
Despite MLC & NAB Wealth working on plans for the new team for the past year, Clancy said Barnett’s hire was not related to National Australia Bank’s failed bid for Axa Asia Pacific.
“No, not really. Our view is that as a greater proportion of Australians, obviously the baby boomers, enter retirement it will be increasingly important for wealth management businesses to offer tailored retirement solution products rather than simply try to extend accumulation phase products into specific retirement products,” he said.
