Scottish International Fund Managers (SIFM) is part of the Scottish Life International group. Scottish Life International itself is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Royal London Group. Royal London was founded in 1861, initially as a friendly society, and became a mutual life insurance company in 1908. Royal London is one of the stronger life and pension companies in the UK and has a particularly strong track record for with profits performance. The Royal London Group has funds under management in excess of £23 billion. It employs over 3,800 people and has in the region of 3.5 million customers.

Based in the Isle of Man, SIFM specialises in the provision of capital protected investment funds, through an open-ended investment vehicle, known as The Scottish Capital Protected Fund plc.

The Scottish Capital Protected Fund plc is not only attractive to individual investors but also to other types of investor such as:

• pension fund trustees: sometimes facing difficult investment decisions, they have a duty to protect the value of the members' pension fund while providing real returns over inflation
• trust companies: often have to make investment decisions on behalf of the trust. In order to ensure that the value of the investment is not eroded by inflation they might invest directly in the stock market but this will expose the investment to potentially unlimited capital loss
• institutions: having to grow the value of their assets to provide value for their shareholders, while making sure that hard-earned profits remain protected.

The principal markets for this fund are existing portfolio bonds, broker funds and institutions offering a group scheme to their own staff and clients.

The fund will appeal to any company concerned about the protection of assets against the risks of inflation and stock market volatility. Advisers dealing with other life companies in the Isle of Man will be able to buy these funds to add to their portfolio. Scottish International Fund Managers aims to position itself as the company financial advisers turn to when they think about capital-protected products.