BT Financial Group (BTFG) plans to inject more than $15 million into fund product development across its Asgard investment platform in 2011.
Asgard head Craig Lawrenson said the funds will be used to enhance the platform's existing insurance and master trust offerings and to adopt model portfolios.
"A lot of the money we're spending this year is actually business requirements and planning for next year, so there was always an element of actually delivering stuff and there was also an element of preparing for next year's delivering so that's where the $15 million was spent in 2010," Lawrenson said.
"We've spent roughly $15 million this year - that is for FY10 - and we'll be spending a little over that next year.
"So, there is a strong endorsement by the shareholder as well by giving us the money to invest. But, equally, we're being able to hit a lot of the needs and wants of our advisers, which is fantastic."
Lawrenson, who moved across from BT Wrap to head up Asgard in October, said Asgard intends to follow a similar path to BT Wrap in terms of future enhancements.
"Clearly, the big trend in adopting model portfolios is not a BT Wrap trend, it is an industry trend. And we need to follow suit on that so we're looking forward to that landing towards the middle of next year," he said.
"We're doing a bit of work on the master trust, a bit of tinkering, and adding some flexibility around being able to transition out of the master wrap and into eWrap."
He said Asgard is also focusing attention on incorporating reform proposals into its offering.
"We're obviously making changes in relation to the IFSA (Investment and Financial Services Association) fee charter and taking this opportunity to see how more flexible we can make our fee engine," he said.
"It's pretty flexible to start with from dollar-based fees, percentage-based fees, and we're really fine-tuning that and adding a few bells and whistles."
In May this year, BTFG announced it would spend $15 million on project development across its investment platform suite.
