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Shifting landscape for platforms

Journalist: Ima Jackson-Obot, FTAdviser

ended 02. February 2023

Hi advisers,

I'm working on a feature about advised platforms and want to find out how you are using/choosing platforms you use; how that has changed; are you running your own or using a third-party platform; what are the benefits (or not) of running your own platform or using a third-party platform/legacy platforms?

3 responses from the Newspage community

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Wes Wilkes
CEO at IronMarket Wealth
Having used 3rd party platforms as an advisory firm and then as a discretionary firm, the incumbents have not aged well. Annual due diligence is crucial but more important than that is functionality, asset availability and frankly adhering to service level standards. Each one of these has waned dramatically over the past four years. We have decided to attempt to run our own platform powered by 3rd party tech, basically because we were running it anyway so poor was the service. This way we can also remove the platform element of a total client cost.
We are optimistic if not completely convinced yet by our new 3rd party in this adventure and will only adopt once it is perfect. This sector was ripe for disruption: I just hope the disruptors can deliver.
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Samuel Mather-Holgate
Independent Financial Adviser at Mather and Murray Financial
From a client perspective, cost is alway going to be a primary driver so we use Aegon and Aviva as we have negotiated great terms. For clients who actively use the platform we prefer Aviva as its user experience is better, but those who are just cost focused are put onto Aegon retirement choices. They are cheap but comprehensive. We don’t intend to run our own platform as the costs would just be passed onto our clients and we don’t think that’s fair.
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Philip Dragoumis
Director and Owner at Thera Wealth Management
We use third-party platforms for our clients and perform independent due diligence on the market annually. We filter for size, financial strength, customer service and functionality. Platforms for us must be profitable and financially robust, as we are entrusting our clients' life savings to them. We don't know of many truly Independent advice firms that have their own platforms. We are not sure that this type of solution is necessarily in the interest of their clients.