10 October 2006
Winterthur Life UK has launched an online fund research capability as part of its online adviser services offering. The launch completes the upgrading of Winterthur Life’s investment offering and reinforces its position as a leading provider of open platform investment funds.
The new service includes comprehensive investment analysis and research of all UK unit trusts, OEICs, life and pension funds with asset allocation available across 11 separate classes.
The upgrade of the fund research function completes a range of measures over the last six months to refresh and enhance Winterthur Life’s investment capability for advisers. On April 6 Winterthur added a new range of carefully selected quality funds on its Tailored Selection fund platform, enhancing the company investment range as part of its A-Day proposition.
To support the business post A-Day the company has strengthened Bernard Henshall’s investment development team with the appointment of Andy Boyt to provide field support to the company’s high net-worth advisers.
The appointment further enhances a restructure of the company’s investment management team, headed by Vince Rennie, chief investment officer, which has recently created four new roles to support the process of research, selection and active monitoring of Winterthur Tailored Selection and Elite Fund of Funds platforms.
Vince Rennie commented: “Winterthur Life’s new online adviser services offering now provides advisers with the facility of accessing whole of market fund research through one platform. The proposition our investment team offers is an assurance to advisers that we have rigorous fund selection procedures in place, offering the right mix of funds and fund managers across our platforms. Not only does this provide peace of mind for their clients it takes some of the hard work out of the selection process.
“The success of the team lies in the ability to make use of all the research information available to identify fund managers with the skills to outperform in the future market environment, and to combine funds that complement each other.”
The construction and development of the Tailored Selection is aided by Bernard Henshall, investment distribution manager, while Colin Taylor, head of equity investments, oversees the Elite Fund of Fund range.
The final fund selections are agreed by the Winterthur Investment Panel, which is comprised of individuals with diverse and complementary backgrounds from within the team, with the process enhanced by research from independent experts, Forsyth Partners. The rigorous research and monitoring processes Winterthur has in place is designed to help advisers make appropriate fund selection and asset allocation decisions for their clients, and provide them with security over the quality of their investment.
-End-
For further information:
Paul Riddell Winterthur Life, Press Office +44 (0)1256 798099
Sandra Fulton Winterthur Life, Press Office +44 (0)1256 798310
Christine Wood Financial Dynamics +44 (0)20 7269 7253
Notes to Editors
About Winterthur Life UK Limited
Winterthur Life UK Limited is part of Winterthur Group, a leading Swiss insurance company with its international headquarters in Winterthur, Switzerland.
Winterthur Life UK offers pensions and investments for high net worth clients distributed via top tier IFAs and is renowned for its innovative approach to financial products. Its philosophy of transparent product propositions offers advisers a range of retirement and investment solutions with an open charging structure.
Winterthur Life UK is an experienced provider of single premium personal pensions, trustee investment plans and corporate pensions via IFAs and a leading provider of self-investment retirement plans like Self Invested Personal Pensions (“Sipps”).
Any opinions expressed in this media communication are made as at the date of publication but are subject to change without notice. Past performance is not a guide to the future. The value of shares/units and the income from them can go down as well as up. Exchange rate fluctuations may cause the value of underlying investments to fall as well as rise. Yields are not guaranteed and may fall or rise.
Winterthur Life UK Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
www.winterthur-ifa.co.uk
Winterthur Group
Winterthur is the leading insurer in Switzerland, and ranks among the top ten all-line carriers in Europe. With a history spanning more than 130 years, Winterthur's life insurance, pension and non-life businesses are based mainly in Western Europe, but the group also has activities in Central and Eastern Europe, the US and Asia. Using a variety of channels, the group manages a balanced product portfolio for private clients as well as small and medium-sized companies. Winterthur operates in 17 countries, and has around 19,000 employees and 13 million clients worldwide. In the first half year of 2006, the group achieved a business volume of 18.8 billion Swiss francs, and reported assets under management of 157.4 billion Swiss francs as of June 30, 2006. Winterthur is a 100% subsidiary of Credit Suisse Group, a leading global financial services company headquartered in Zurich. Further information about Winterthur can be found at www.winterthur.com.
Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking information
This press release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements. In addition, in the future we, and others on our behalf, may make statements that constitute forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements relating to our plans, objectives or goals; our future economic performance or prospects; the potential effect on our future performance of certain contingencies; and assumptions underlying any such statements.
Words such as “believes,” “anticipates,” “expects,” "intends” and “plans” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements but are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements. We do not intend to update these forward-looking statements except as may be required by applicable laws.
By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that predictions, forecasts, projections and other outcomes described or implied in forward-looking statements will not be achieved. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause results to differ materially from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements. These factors include (i) market and interest rate fluctuations; (ii) the strength of the global economy in general and the strength of the economies of the countries in which we conduct our operations in particular; (iii) the ability of counterparties to meet their obligations to us; (iv) the effects of, and changes in, fiscal, monetary, trade and tax policies, and currency fluctuations; (v) political and social developments, including war, civil unrest or terrorist activity; (vi) the possibility of foreign exchange controls, expropriation, nationalization or confiscation of assets in countries in which we conduct our operations; (vii) the ability to maintain sufficient liquidity and access capital markets; (viii) operational factors such as systems failure, human error, or the failure to properly implement procedures; (ix) actions taken by regulators with respect to our business and practices in one or more of the countries in which we conduct our operations; (x) the effects of changes in laws, regulations or accounting policies or practices; (xi) competition in geographic and business areas in which we conduct our operations; (xii) the ability to retain and recruit qualified personnel; (xiii) the ability to maintain our reputation and promote our brands; (xiv) the ability to increase market share and control expenses; (xv) technological changes; (xvi) the timely development and acceptance of our new products and services and the perceived overall value of these products and services by users; (xvii) acquisitions, including the ability to integrate successfully acquired businesses; (xviii) the adverse resolution of litigation and other contingencies; and (xix) our success at managing the risks involved in the foregoing.
We caution you that the foregoing list of important factors is not exclusive; when evaluating forward-looking statements, you should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and events, as well as the risks identified in Credit Suisse Group’s most recently filed Form 20-F and reports on Form 6-K furnished to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Cautionary statement regarding non-GAAP financial information
This press release contains non-GAAP financial information. A reconciliation of such non-GAAP financial information to the most directly comparable measures under generally accepted accounting principles, is posted on our website at http://www.credit-suisse.com/sec.html.
