During its third quarter results ending 31 March 2023, the firm said AuA had increased 15.6m from the last reported figure as at 31 December 2022.

New business for Q3 2023 came in at £25.4m, ahead of new business of £18.6m in the quarter ended 31 December 2022. However, this was down from £31.4m a year earlier.

Graham Sheward, group chief executive at Hansard, said: “While the overall environment has remained challenging for investment and long-term savings plans, it was pleasing to see a 36.5% improvement from our Q2 new business level.

“In our largest region, Middle East and Africa, new business was up 20.8% for the quarter ended 31 March 2023 compared to 31 March 2022. Recently recruited sales managers in this region have generated improved results via both new and existing distribution partners. The business continues to target new opportunities via asset managers’ high net worth clients.

“New business in Latin America was down 9.5% for the quarter. Similar to the Middle East and Africa region, we are working on building business with new distribution partners to supplement our existing distribution.

“The rest of world and far east business remain below previous financial years as a result of a decline in single premium business and business acceptance restrictions arising out of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“We continue to make encouraging progress with distribution opportunities for our Japanese proposition to be launched on our new policy administration system.”

This is up from £1.9m in H1 2022.

But the firms’ fees and commissions came in at £22.9m for H1 2023, compared to £25.2m for H1 2022. Hansard said that this reflected lower levels of new business in the current financial year.

Assets under administration were £1.1bn as at 31 December 2022, largely unchanged from £1.09bn as at 30 June 2022.

In the firm’s London Stock Exchange announcement on 9 March, Hansard said it will “continue to progress the launch of a new proposition in the Middle East to assist growing our business in that market and to develop distribution opportunities for our Japanese proposition”.

“We expect sales of long-term savings products through independent financial advisers to continue to be impacted by global economic headwinds. Looking forward, however, we are confident that our new product pipeline will lead to increased sales and long-term growth in the business.”

Graham Sheward, group chief executive of Hansard, said: “While the overall environment has remained challenging for investment and long-term savings plans, it was pleasing to deliver a much-improved profit result compared to the comparable prior year period.

“We continue to make good progress with our strategic initiatives which are targeted to deliver future new business growth and cost efficiencies.”

Within its results, new business between July to September 2022 came in at £24.8m, down 21% from £31.4m ($36m, €36.4m) in Q1 2022.

The firm reported a 2.8% increase in new business in Middle East and Africa. It said that it is “beginning to see some of the fruits” of its investment in this region where it has recruited additional regional sales management.

Latin America saw the biggest increase with 17.6%. Hansard said it is  “working on building business with new distribution partners to supplement our existing distribution” within region.

But the Rest of the World (59.6%)  and Far East (55.6%) regions suffered significant declines in new business levels.

For the former, Hansard attributed the drop to a “decline in single premium business and business acceptance restrictions arising out of the Russia-Ukraine conflict”. For the latter, it said there has been a fluctuating smaller base of new business following a spike in the previous year. As a result, Hansard relocated a regional sales manager to Malaysia to try and drive business growth in the region,

Assets under administration were £1.1bn as of 30 September 2022, a £6.1m increase from 30 June 2022.

Middle East launch

Graham Sheward, group chief executive at Hansard, said the firm said it has been trying to counteract the “challenging” economic environment with additional distribution relationships, regional sales managers and product developments.

“The overall environment has remained challenging for investment and long-term savings plans, ” he added. “However, we are making good progress developing new distribution opportunities.

“We expect to launch a new proposition in the Middle East on our new administration system in 2023 to assist growing our business in that market.

“We also continue to make encouraging progress with various distribution opportunities for our Japanese proposition and remain optimistic for the significant potential in that jurisdiction.”

This marks a drop from the £33.5m in Q2 2022 and a sharp fall from the £47.3m reported in Q3 2021.

New business levels for the nine months to 31 March 2022 (YTD) were £95.8m, compared with £123.6m during the same period the previous year.

Assets under administration dropped to £1.17bn at the end of Q3 2022, from £1.23bn at 31 December 2021.

It its H1 2022 (1 July 2021 – 31 December 2022) results, Hansard had already reported a 15% drop in new business levels – to £64.9m from £76.3m in H1 2021 – which the firm attributed to a “challenging backdrop”.

But the group said it continues to work with its prospective Japanese distribution partner as it’s focused on unveiling a product in the country.

Graham Sheward, group chief executive of Hansard Global, said: “As our targeted region of Japan remains under covid-19 restrictions with increased case counts, we continue to work with our local distribution partner towards a suitable launch date.

“We also continue to take vigorous action to improve new business levels both with respect to our traditional business and by progressing opportunities to deploy new products more widely in Japan and other suitable territories around the world.

“In addition to the new initiatives mentioned in our previous quarterly trading update, we have recently recruited two experienced executives into our sales and business development team in order to assist the delivery of this growth.”

Brewin Dolphin has been appointed investment advisers by Guinness Global Investors (formerly Guinness Asset Management), meaning both funds are labelled as ‘PoweredBy’ Brewin.

They follow Brewin’s US$ Global Asset Allocation and Tactical Asset Allocation, with fund selection leveraging the firm’s established fund research capabilities and experience.

The funds are US dollar focused, and non-UK situs, which Brewin said makes them ideal strategies for clients with international needs.

Jonathan Simons, director of Acorn International, which helps to market and distribute the Guinness funds to the international IFA community, said: “Over the last few years, we have seen increasing demand for such multi-asset funds from the advisers that we speak to, and we are absolutely delighted that Hansard have decided to add them to their range.

“Now more IFAs have the opportunity to access these highly popular funds and we are delighted to increase the access to Brewin Dolphin’s multi awarding winning offerings via Guinness. We look forward to working closely with Hansard with this offering going forward.”

Brewin Dolphin’s head of nationals, networks and international distribution, Ian Kloss, said: “I am excited about the partnership opportunities that the Hansard addition creates for advisers.”

Kloss, who was previously chief executive of Quilter International Singapore, added: “Brewin Dolphin’s investment expertise via the Guinness multi-asset funds works well for the clients of advisers who are based internationally and want to make the most of their investments, especially in the year ahead when higher inflationary pressures are forecast.”