Lombard sees strong niche growth continuing

GENEVA (Reuters) - Lombard International, the life assurance firm advising the wealthy, said it expects to maintain its strong pace of growth as the world's rich seek the most tax-efficient ways to pass on their wealth.

David Steinegger, chief executive of Lombard -- owned by British insurer Friends Provident FP.L -- said Lombard could continue its compound annual growth of 28 percent in assets under management since he took over in 2001.

"We've seen a development in our business that we feel will continue for the medium term and beyond," Steinegger said at the Reuters Wealth Management Summit on Tuesday.

Steinegger said the company could potentially target a large portion of the vast amounts of wealth available globally, estimated at more than $30 trillion.

"Lombard is just a drop in a vast ocean and continuing something along the current growth rate is realistic in light of the opportunities that are out there," he said.

Luxembourg-based Lombard specializes on advising clients of private banks on how to pass on most tax efficiently assets to the next generation. It has about 12 billion euros ($16.85 billion) in assets under management.

"There's real momentum in this segment of the market ... we feel there's a fantastic opportunity to continue to grow successfully provided we get things right and aren't complacent," Steinegger said.

Its model is based on "privatbancassurance" -- a concept combining private banking and investment management services using life assurance as a financial planning structure.

Lombard also expects growth to come through from Asia, where it launched five years ago.

"While there's lots of wealth starting to be generated we see the real opportunities more realistically more like three or five years down the road," he said in regard to Asia.

Friends Provident is in the process of merging with closed life insurer Resolution (RSL.L), although UK rivals Pearl and Standard Life (SL.L) have threatened to gatecrash the deal, which could lead Friends out in the cold.

The planned merger made strategic sense and was unlikely to affect Lombard, Steinegger said.

"I see it as at worst it's neutral, at best it's positive in that it provides some additional resources if we need that going forward. Certainly there's no threat or no change to the Lombard strategy," he said.