Zurich in the UK is to add 20 new funds to the list of funds available through its investment and retail pension products in a move designed to further strengthen the company's total investment and pension propositions.
The move, which will see the introduction of a range of funds from leading investment houses such as Fidelity, Jupiter, M&G and Artemis, is the result of an ongoing review and refresh process introduced by Zurich to ensure that its offering remains one of the best on the market. The review and refresh process is carried out on a continual basis with appropriate weight given to feedback from the adviser community, as well as monitoring performance over the short and longer term.
The funds, which will be available from 31 July 2006, focus on four main areas and are as follows (see notes for full details):
· Multi-manager - increased from one fund house to three, adding Jupiter Merlin and Fidelity
· Property - expanded on the property proposition from four to six fund houses, by adding M&G and Schroders
· Bonds - strengthened the bond asset class with the addition of AEGON and Newton
· Themed funds - captured many of the investment themes currently being supported by the market by including such funds as AEGON Ethical, Investec Global Energy and M&G Global Basics.
Pete Davis, Funds Development Director at Zurich, said; "As a product provider it's our responsibility to make sure we can offer advisers and their clients the best possible range of funds to choose from. We take this responsibility very seriously and as such we continually speak to advisers to ensure that we are able to give them access to a diverse range of top quartile performing funds to meet their clients' investment needs.
"We already offer one of the widest range of fund options on the market with funds from 30 of the world's leading investment houses including Threadneedle, Fidelity, Schroders, Jupiter, New Star and INVESCO Perpetual. The addition of these new funds makes our proposition even stronger, allowing advisers to provide first class products and fund choices to their clients."
Ends
For more information, please contact:
Hélène Barnes, Senior Media Relations Consultant, Zurich
01793 505586 or 07841 562841
Andrew Appleyard, Media Relations Management
020 3008 6061 or 07909 684468
Editors notes:
The new funds are:
