Abbey National today launches Inscape.
After months of work on its new wealth management offering, Abbey National today unveiled Inscape. The multi-channel service is aimed at those with investible assets of GBP50,000 and above. Wealth management for the privileged many, claims Inscape’s website.
It seems that Abbey National is taking this promise seriously. The strategic aim of moving standard banking customers to a more upmarket investment management proposition is nothing new in the UK market, but Inscape takes steps to facilitate this transition. The provision of a special reserve account that aims to enable customers falling below the minimum investment level to consolidate their assets could well prove the key to successful client acquisition.
In a fast moving sector Inscape has been slow to market and has invested heavily – it had run to GBP19 million by December 1999 alone. But the time and money looks well spent: in a market where so many providers have jumped on the Internet wealth management bandwagon, Abbey National’s bottom-up approach to its service design creates a customer friendly image. Furthermore, as wealthy individuals demand top levels of investment performance, Abbey has chosen a multi-manager approach to its portfolios, similar to that employed at the top end of the private banking market by Coutts. A fund manager list, that reads more like a Who’s Who, includes Goldman Sachs, Schroder, and Merrill Lynch.
Of course, the success of the project will depend upon its implementation. Inscape’s marketing materials reflect the dependence of the service on relationship management and the provision of six dedicated investment advice centers is evidence of commitment to a face-to-face approach. Many UK wealth managers are failing to deliver, however. A recent opinion poll has shown that while customers view excellent service as a pre-requisite for success, 31% of high net worth individuals find some aspect of their service unsatisfactory. Abbey is doing all it can to please this demanding group of customers.
