BT funds back in favour

CHRIS Freeman is the national director for sales at BT Funds Management and spends a lot of time talking to advisers and financial planners about the position of the company the marketplace.

Mr Freeman was in Perth this week telling people of the advantages of sticking with BT Funds Management.

It has now been more than 12 months since Deutsche Bank sold BT’s funds management arm to the Principal Financial group. Prior to that, due to the uncertainty related to the ownership, advisers had placed BT Funds Management on a tentative “watch list”, resulting in inflows to the funds management giant slowing to a trickle.

However, once the dust settled and it was clear Principal was happy to leave the funds management group alone, the rate of inflows were restored.

Mr Freeman was at pains to emphasise that unlike some other funds management groups that were buying distribution arms such as dealer groups and financial planning organisations, BT Funds Management was only interested in manufacturing investment products and not getting involved in the sale of them.

The most apparent change to BT Funds Management has been its openness in regard to its processes.

BT Funds Management is going out of its way to inform researchers and advisers of its methods of stock selection and asset allocation. This will considerably improve the perception of the group.

BT Funds Management has also been very pro-active in developing new funds. The TIME fund and the Japan fund are good recent examples.