AXA Wealth is gearing up to unveil a new pricing model in a move to obtain a significant price advantage over rival platforms.

The new pricing model will make Elevate a 'very competitive' proposition across all key pricing points and is expected to be tiered below 35bps for Elevate portfolios of between £25,000 and £100,000; and below 30bps for assets over £500,000.

AXA Wealth's Elevate wrap platform includes AXA's capital-protected fund range.

"Winning the platform war is key for AXA Wealth, which has invested millions over the past four years to make it one of the most trusted platforms in the market," said Paul Riddell, head of strategic communications at AXA Wealth. "Not only will it be one of the most keenly priced wraps in the market across key price points, it is a platform that will continue to benefit from an investment programme designed to keep Elevate at the cutting edge of platform design."

Riddell said that the new pricing model will refine the Elevate platform proposition and will give advisers and clients "a market-leading wrap platform at a highly competitive price."

"Importantly, we believe platform providers are going to be severely tested over coming years as the global financial crisis continues to bite," he said. "AXA Wealth is constantly looking at ways of improving value for money for advisers and clients. Its joint offer with Elevate and Architas provides low cost multi-manager investment solutions and, in the new year, it will be improving its explicit charging structure to better support advisers in the post RDR [Retail Distribution Review] world."

AXA Wealth has been promoting alternative investments including structured products among retail investors for over a year as it believes there are many new investments that offer various protection features that clients could switch into to play down the impact of the market turmoil, the low interest rates environment and rising inflation.

AXA Wealth said advisers could use the current environment to urge clients to look at the benefits of a range of products perhaps not considered before such as variable annuities, and protected or structured products that offer the potential for growth but with an element of protection.

The new pricing model is expected to be available to new and existing Elevate user firms from 1 January 2013.