Skandia Australia will formally disband its investment consulting relationship with Mercer at the close of the financial year.

It is understood the Skandia investment committee met yesterday to finalise the multi-manager’s business relationship with Mercer Investment Consulting, a direct competitor to Intech, the investment consultant that Skandia acquired late in 2006. “It’s imminent that it will happen, but we have to dot the Is and cross the Ts,” Ross Laidlaw, Skandia chief executive officer, said last week. “The relationship will change at the beginning of the second half of the year… Mercer is aware of it [but] we haven’t signed agreements.” However, a spokewoman for Skandia said that any decision reached by the investment committee must be ratified by the Skandia board before it could be implemented. With the acquisition of Intech, Skandia now runs an in-house asset allocation and portfolio construction division. Laidlaw said Mercer could still be retained to develop online educational tools for Skandia clients.