Platforms have improved to help advisers demonstrate value to clients: Platform Benchmarking and Competitive Analysis Report

King Loong Choi

Leading researcher Investment Trends has released its 2019 Platform Benchmarking & Competitive Analysis Report, an in-depth study of the investment platforms used by Australia’s financial planners and their clients.

Key highlights:

• Netwealth continues to lead the market for overall platform functionality, closely followed by HUB24
• Macquarie Wrap’s Digital Portfolio Manager is helping advisers deliver affordable scalable advice
• Platform managed accounts functionality is broadening to assist both new and sophisticated users

Netwealth continues to lead the market for overall platform functionality, closely followed by HUB24

In the sixteenth edition of the Report, Investment Trends benchmarked the industry’s 18 leading platforms across 6 categories, encompassing 509 key criteria.

The extensive and in-depth scoring process revealed Netwealth as the leader in overall platform functionality, marginally ahead of HUB24. BT Panorama maintained third spot to edge out Praemium, a new entrant in this year’s Report.

“Over the last 12 months, platform functionality scores have improved in a wide range of areas. The final scoring differentials between the leading platforms across such a vast set of considerations are narrower than ever, reflecting the intense competition and rivalry in the space,” said King Loong Choi, Senior Analyst at Investment Trends.

“Many platforms have introduced a host of improvements to help advisers further demonstrate their value add to clients, ranging from fee cuts to improved fee comparison tools, managed accounts functionality and retirement calculators.”

Industry wide, the five top-ranking full-function platforms are:

1. Netwealth
2. HUB24
3. BT Panorama
4. Praemium
5. OneVue

Macquarie Wrap’s Digital Portfolio Manager is helping advisers deliver affordable scalable advice

Compliance, admin and paperwork continues to be a major burden for financial advisers from a time and cost perspective, preventing them from spending more time with their clients and potentially servicing more clients. B2B digital advice solutions such as robo-advice has been touted as a potential solution, but current options remain relatively niche.

Macquarie Wrap has made headway in addressing this challenge with the introduction of their Digital Portfolio Manager, a combined digital advice tool and end-to-end portfolio management engine. Their Digital Portfolio Manager automatically aligns client portfolios to a target that reflects an adviser’s investment philosophy, with full automation of advice documentation and digital authorisation requests to clients and advisers.

“For its innovative approach in helping advisers deliver scaled advice in an affordable manner, the Macquarie Wrap Digital Portfolio Manager is a worthy recipient of Investment Trends ‘Best New Functionality’ Award,” said Choi.

Platform managed accounts functionality is broadening to assist both new and sophisticated users

Managed accounts remains a key development area for platforms as these solutions continue to gain popularity among financial advisers (35% recommended it in 2019, up from 30% in 2018). Of the 18 platforms evaluated, 13 currently offer managed accounts in some shape or form.

In 2019, functionality improvements largely focused on CGT modelling tools, improved ability to substitute and exclude direct stocks, and equipping model managers with tools to better monitor and manage their models.

“Platforms are aware that more financial advisers are starting to use managed accounts, while existing users are using these solutions more extensively. As a result, improvements in the last 12 months focused on helping both new entrants and also model managers who demand greater flexibility and functionality,” said Choi.

“HUB24 made the most notable managed accounts-related improvements in 2019, and its efforts are recognised as Investment Trends’ ‘Best Platform Managed Accounts Functionality’ Award,” said Choi.

About the report

The Investment Trends 2019 Platform Benchmarking & Competitive Analysis Report is based on detailed analyst reviews comparing 18 leading wrap platforms and master trusts across 509 aspects of their service offerings.

Functional items are given weightings to reflect their relative importance to advisers, based on Investment Trends ongoing annual Planner Technology Reports, which track adviser preferences around their platforms based on detailed quantitative surveys.

Investment Trends Planner Technology reports are used by virtually all major Australian investment platforms to understand evolving adviser needs, assess their standing versus competitors and track trends emerging across the industry.