Managing director James Douglas says he has a very strong view of where he wants to take the company.
Up until now the general perception is that Guardian Trust is a trustee company which has a few other things.
Douglas says the business is big in the trustee business, however it also has an excellent funds management with $4 bill under management (which includes group investment funds), plus a 15 branch network with advisers and 10,000 clients.
"What we are doing is pulling all these building blocks together," he says.
The catalyst for this evolution is the decision by GPG to sell Guardian Trust (and its parent company Tyndall Australia) to Royal & SunAlliance.
Royal & SunAlliance has given Guardian Trust the ok to spend money and develop its services.
Douglas says the first new product is GT Invest, a wrap account that includes five balanced funds with different risk profiles.
Guardian Trust has taken a "best of breed" approach towards developing the product and has funds from other managers. The asset allocation for GT Invest has been done in house and the both research houses have been used for fund selection.
GT Invest has an $80,000 minimum on it. Entry fees to funds are rebated where possible. GT charge an implementation fee of up to 2% and an annual monitoring fee of 1.3% plus gst.
The difference between this service and a balanced fund is that it is more tax efficient and investors can change their portfolio at any stage.
Douglas says he will "definitely" be taking GT Invest out to the independent financial planning market, as well as using it within its branch network.
Guardian Trust has also taken the first steps towards establishing a financial planning division.
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