Equinox launches trading platform for brokers

EFS Investment Solutions (Pty) Ltd, better known as Equinox.co.za, has launched Intervest, a collective investment trust trading platform for Independent Financial Advisors (IFAs).

“Independent advisors will now be able to take advantage of the real time portfolio valuation, access to the widest range of collective investments, transparency and efficiency that we offer our direct clients, in our separately branded Intervest portal,” said Chief Operating Officer of EFS Cathy van der Merwe.

Choice

“Our research suggests that independent financial advisors put a high value on the wide range of funds we have on our platform. Currently we have over 550, but we add new funds as they become available. Advisors also like our independence and the fact that there is no coercion to invest in particular collective investments,” she said.
“It is much more professional to be able to advise clients on the strengths and weaknesses of a wide range of collective investments, when you have access to the underlying holdings, the fee structures and most important of all, rolling up to date performance statistics,” said van der Merwe.

“During volatile trading conditions such as those that we have just experienced, advisors will be able to demonstrate which targeted return collective investments, for example, are managed in such a way that enable them to meet their long term targets,” she said.

Efficiency

Intervest offers IFAs the opportunity to administer their client unit trust and retirement fund investments from one platform where they can draw detailed statements, tax certificates, buy sell and switch in real time.
“In addition, EFS Investment Solutions (Pty) Ltd has 13b Retirement Fund Administration license, which means that financial advisors will also be able to manage their clients retirement annuities, pension and provident funds on our platform,” said van der Merwe.

“The EFS LISP platform confirms with the most stringent and up to date security technology and we make regular audits a priority,” she said.

Intervest is the only Linked Investment Services Provider that offers a complete online unit trust investment solution to financial advisors. Intervest decreases the paperwork burden for financial advisors as the platform has been designed to facilitate the seamless order processing between end clients, financial advisors and collective investment companies.

Transparency

Advisors who use the Intervest platform will also be able to score points with discerning clients by allocating viewing rights to clients that wish to view their own portfolios, as well as their detailed transaction statements, tax certificates and fees via a secure link.

“Our system enables the easy, transparent and automated management of commissions,” said van der Merwe. Initial commission is allocated to the relevant commission portfolio upon the real time completion of the client’s transaction, Ongoing commission is transferred automatically on a monthly basis. The functionality makes it easy and convenient to administer and reconcile commissions at any time.

(For further details please contact Cathy van der Merwe: COO Intervest: 012/ 644 0518 or Jacques Verster: Jacques Verster, Communications Director, Mortimer Harvey (Pty) Ltd. 011/ 996 2833, cell 083 276 9009)

About EFS

EFS is a privately owned company. The company was listed as Equinox in 1998 and delisted in 2001. EFS has been operating since 1999 trading as Equinox.co.za,. It is licensed by the Financial Services Board as an Administrative and Discretionary Financial Services Provider.

EFS is a member of the Linked Investment Services Providers Association (LISPA), committed to setting industry standards of transparency and integrity.

Equinox is different from competitor LISPs in a number of ways. Most LISPs focus their businesses on the management of retirement annuities and living annuities, whereas Equinox focuses on the accumulation phase of saving. Equinox offers both pre-tax and after tax products.

EFS’s unique proprietary technology has been developed over the past eight years specifically for collective investments and has no paper based legacy and minimal human intervention is required to action IFA requests. Like other Linked Investment Providers, EFS buys collective investments in bulk from collective investment companies and unit trusts in bulk from collective investment companies at wholesale rates.