Cofunds

Pictet Asset Management is aiming to "create noise" with its first onshore product for UK investors, a lower cost multi-asset fund for Percival Stanion and team.

Sanlam Private Wealth has hired Distribution Technology's Rob McDonnell as head of business development.

Legal & General is understood to be considering a sale of its Cofunds platform, just over two years after it sealed a deal to take full ownership.

Stephen Mohan, UK director at Europe's largest platform group Allfunds Bank, is set to leave the firm, Investment Week understands.

‘There is more to LGIM than just index funds’

A "combination of politics and pensions" contributed to slower sales across platforms in the first three months of the year, with the year-on-year (YOY) asset growth rate also receding, according to research.

The chief executive of UK platform giant Cofunds has acknowledged the business "should be generating more profit" despite an 83% increase in 2014 figures reversing a previous downwards trend.

Platform inflows reached record highs in the fourth quarter of 2014 as upcoming pension freedoms and demand for income boosted inflows, according to Fundscape.

Legal & General has said it must "operationally leverage" its Cofunds platform and boost flows into its asset management arm this year in order to improve its business mix.

Ascentric's managing director, Hugo Thorman, has argued advisers' use of model portfolios is hindering the popularity of investment trusts.