For you, we go much higher

I recently had a conversation with Mattie Rice, Head of Sales in Irish Life about our new investment campaign for brokers. 

Mattie Rice (MR): We recently launched an investment campaign specifically designed for brokers. What was the reasoning behind the campaign?

Michael Hayes (MH): The campaign was designed primarily to highlight how our investment options can provide a diverse array of solutions for brokers and their clients’ investment needs. Our objective is threefold: first, to make sure brokers are aware of our wide choice of funds from our four world-class investment managers; second, to highlight that our funds across many categories have performed very strongly; and finally, to highlight how our exceptional service can support our brokers' business.

MR: On that first point, choice for brokers, how is our choice different?

MH: We believe that choice is essential, not simply on principle, but to deliver meaningful options to brokers for their client's differing needs. We offer over 80 funds across the major asset classes from our four world-class award-winning fund managers, Irish Life Investment Managers, Setanta Asset Management, Amundi Asset Management and Fidelity International. With our investment solutions, clients can choose to select their own investments that include multi-asset, equity (both indexed and active), fixed income, property, commodities, alternatives, cash and other specialist funds or choose diversified, ready-made portfolios from our multi-asset fund ranges across a range of different risk profiles. Furthermore, our multi-asset funds are managed to stay within their risk ratings, ensuring peace of mind for our brokers and their clients.  

Over the last 10 years, multi-asset funds have been the choice for the majority of advisers/brokers. We now offer a wide selection of multi-asset ranges with the choice of four fund ranges, including our Retirement Portfolio funds, which are designed specifically for the specific needs of ARF investors.

MR: Performance is always front and centre. What can we say about our funds’ performance?

MH: There’s no avoiding the topic of fund performance! One of the points I regularly highlight to brokers is setting fund performance in the context of market returns. US mega-cap technology has driven the majority of returns for investors for much of the last six years. Funds tilted to this theme, predominantly passive funds, have been the primary beneficiaries of this trend. With this level of market concentration unprecedented, diversification can play an important role for investors going forward. We are fortunate that across our fund range, we have a wide range of solutions tilted to various themes and investment styles, which should help investors navigate changing market conditions over the coming years.

Regarding specific fund performance, we are delighted to have top-performing funds across the range. Some of the highlights include:
In the largest investor multi-asset category, MAPS 4 has been the best-performing fund over the last ten years*

• Setanta’s flagship Global Equity fund has outperformed the World Index in 18 out of 23 years, a remarkable consistency of outperformance**.
• Amundi and Fidelity, two of the global leaders in asset management, have many strong-performing funds across a wide range of styles, including themed, sustainable, and capital-protected solutions. 
• Amundi is Europe’s largest fund manager and globally in the Top 10 with a rich heritage in responsible investing for over 30 years as well as being Europe’s largest manager for structured funds***. Amundi manages a range of funds for Irish Life including the Amundi Protect 90 fund which provides a  lock in with 90% capital protection of the highest fund price.
• Fidelity is a global leader and for Irish Life offers funds investing in less traditional and underrepresented regions like India and China, where on-the-ground expertise is critical.

MR: Service is a constant theme in my conversations with brokers. Good service is integral to the success of their business. How important is our service for our brokers?

MH: Extremely important. This is why we invest heavily in ensuring our service levels for brokers continually evolve and improve. Currently, we respond to queries and issue plans within one day, have a dedicated phone line for quick responses, proactively contact brokers, ensure rapid policy setup for faster payments and provide digital tools for additional support.

Beyond these enhancements, we’ve listened to brokers and significantly adapted and expanded our pricing options and flexibility. This adjustment was made to better align with and support their business models. We value the input from our brokers and their adoption of these new initiatives.

For more information, contact your Irish Life account manager.