Colonial First State (CFS) will continue to enhance its FirstWrap investment platform by remaining committed to an outcome-based focus.
"We've got a strong focus on outcome-based investments for retirees and these types of investment solutions are different to what's currently available in the market," CFS general manager of product and channel development Peter Chun told InvestorDaily.
Last week, CFS announced it had secured exclusive platform distribution rights for the New South Wales (NSW) Waratah Annuity Bond, developed by the NSW Treasury Corporation, an annuity-style NSW government bond running for a period of up to 10 years.
The fund's inclusion on FirstWrap addresses the investment themes that clients and advisers are demanding from CFS, Chun said.
"This is really in that same theme that we're looking to make available so it's about making our platform relevant to the themes that we're seeing in the marketplace," he said.
"We didn't have a lot of investment solutions on our investment menu that offered this sort of outcome for our investors."
The third series of the NSW Waratah Annuity Bond became available from 1 October 2012, offering inflation plus a real rate return of 2.3 per cent.
"As far as other types of outcome-based investments, it's certainly an area of focus for us but not only are we looking at annuity-type bonds, we're looking at other types of inflation-linked deposits," Chun said.
"That's something we're still working on and we're looking at what fund managers are offering in this space: real return funds, inflation plus funds and income-based products."
