MLC will look to tap into the growing family office market as well as build more alliances with boutique fund managers following the merger of its private wealth and asset management businesses.

National Australia Bank (NAB) earlier this month announced it would combine its MLC, NAB Private Wealth and nabInvest businesses.

The three divisions will now be managed by MLC group chief executive Steve Tucker.

"Bringing the businesses together will broaden our offering to more Australians. This strategy will include growing our services for high net worth individuals (HNWI) as well as our asset management business," Tucker said.

As part of the strategy to service HNWIs, the firm will enhance its services in the family office market.

"We recently established a business through our private wealth business that focuses on servicing family offices. It is a big opportunity for us," Tucker said.

Given NAB already had a high number of HNWIs as its client base, it made sense to move into the family office market, he said.

Asset management will also be part of the merged group's growth plans.

Its asset management business, nabInvest, was established in November 2007.

"We have not participated as much as we should in our asset management capabilities. It is an area that such opportunities have already been exploited by our competitors," Tucker said.

Managers in partnership with nabInvest could also secure a mandate with MLC's multi-manager funds.

Already Northward Capital has scored such a listing.

Tucker said it was important, however, that the right due diligence was conducted if a manager was considered for such a mandate.

"The two businesses will operate separately to avoid any conflict of interest. Managers will still need to perform otherwise we will have to replace them with managers that do," he said.