CFS platform green light for Grant Samuel

Speaking to ifa, Grant Samuel director Damien McIntyre explained that joining the FirstChoice platform would provide great opportunities for the business.

“If you’re not on [FirstChoice]… well, then you miss out completely; even though you might be on the menu of many other platforms, because they like to be uniform, you miss out on the business,” Mr McIntyre said.

“[FirstChoice] is the largest investment platform in the country,” he said. “Effectively, what this means is it really tightens up and create many new opportunities that we were previously not seeing.”

Mr McIntyre said he believes the reason this fund has been successful in the Australian marketplace is that it focuses on dividends.

“Given the lust for income amongst retirees and in particular self-managed super investors, this becomes a very attractive investment for them. Previously investors haven’t had the opportunities to invest in global equities with the outcome of getting dividend income,” he said.

“Seven years ago, when we brought this fund to the marketplace, that was our aim: to fill that gap. And the fund has now raised $1.25 billion from various retail channels, so clearly there is a market for dividends,” he added.