Lighthouse Group plc (LON:LGT) Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Streatfield caught up with DirectorsTalk to discuss their new affinity contract with Fire Brigades Union
Q1: First off, congratulations on your latest affinity contract with the Fire Brigades Union. Malcolm, how did this relationship come about?
A1: Well we were approached by a representative of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) several months ago as they were already aware of our strong reputation within the affinity group arena so delivering a professional and cost effective financial planning advice on a truly national basis. No doubt our name had been mentioned via conversations they had already been having with other union representatives as part of their normal exchange of views on various day to day issues.
Q2: So what services will you be offering their members?
A2: Although we weren’t asked to go to a formal tender exercise they made it clear that we were not their only considered provider of financial services and that they were conducting their own market assessment. Therefore we did have to supply full details of how we operate, our service standards, typical service level agreements, infrastructure and advice process, national coverage, including Northern Ireland, was particularly important to them.
Clearly after due consideration the FBU executive agreed that in their view they would be a partner that would be able to deliver exactly what they were looking for. What they were looking for was really national coverage, consistent and robust advice for every FBU member, no matter their background or location, plus an ability to cater for financial planning all supported by a proven infrastructure that can support the delivery of the above, advice for members as well as delivering meaningful management information for the FBU executive on a timely basis so I think all of the component bits of what we do came together for this discussion and the FBU executive were clearly impressed and awarded us the contract.
Q3: So what’s your ongoing strategy when it comes to growing your affinity group base?
A3: It’s a dual strategy really, we now have 19 affinity groups which broadly represent 6 million working people throughout the UK and so we have a dual strategy really which is to meet with more of these affinity members than we are apparently doing. We’re currently engaging on a face-to-face basis with approximately 20,000 of these members every year and clearly there’s quite the capacity to grow that, to engage with more and more each and every year. We will continue to look out for new affinity groups that will join this group when the opportunity presents themselves, we don’t formally mandate any set number but for the last 2-3 years we have been increasing the affinity base by 3 or so per annum and if we can continue with that it’ll be very pleasing.
Q4: Other recent developments, you announced the launch of Luceo Asset Management, that was last month, how is that going?
A4: Well it meeting all of it’s early-doors objectives, the funds themselves went live on 3rd October and we’ve already seen an excess of a 7 figure sum being invested into the range on at Luceo Asset Management’s 3 funds that it launched and a fair bit of traction is developing so we are as a Board very pleased that the launch was successful. It’s been well received amongst our adviser base and the clients are clearly on an increasing amount wanting to engage with the funds so early days but all of the early objectives that we have set for the launch and the fund growth for the early days have been met so we are very pleased at this stage how it’s going.
