Kneeshaw said: “RL360° will definitely become bigger through both organic and M&A growth. I would be very surprised if we had not done another deal within two to three years. Organic growth is from sales but also a net policy increase, and I am pretty confident that will continue.
“There is huge potential in the Asian and Middle East markets in particular, where the story of the emerging middle classes has not yet played out. Regulation will help with that because it will put us centre stage, showing we are able to compete because we come from a well-governed country.
“I see that as helping us go into the mainstream in a lot of these places rather than focusing on expats.
“To do all that, you are going to have to keep spending money on technology, both to satisfy expectations and to increase efficiencies. One of the benefits of M&A work is it allows you to spre ad that efficiency over a much bigger range of policies.”
Pain said: “Investors Trust Assurance will be larger. We focus on emerging markets and as a very new company we do not have the legacy issues some others do. Our technology is fairly good and, as a result, the customer and the broker is in control.
“It is an advantage of coming second or third down the track that, with our technology we do not have to key in information from the life companies. That is a big advantage for us as it means we can grow without having to take on lots of administrators.”
Foy added: “We will be bigger. We are buying open and closed books so we have got a dual strategy. We will grow through acquisition and organically. We have got some ground to make up in the UK that we have lost this year through all the disruption.
“We have got some targeted distribution arrangements around the globe but we are a bit different to the others on the panel in terms of not doing cross-border business.”
With 50% of the panel under new management and 31% of audience members expecting to be so within the next two years, International Adviser’s Fund Links Forum 2018 could look very different.
