Recep Peker

Investment platforms used by financial advisers have ramped up functionality and pricing innovation in their bid to deliver better client outcomes and win market share, according to the 2024 Platform Market Wrap released by SuitabilityHub today.

The comprehensive report provides a detailed analysis of Australia’s 14 major platforms and investment administration solutions, offering valuable insights for financial advisers and product providers.

Key insights include:

• Platforms are rapidly modernising their digital capabilities, akin to apps like Uber, allowing advisers to efficiently self-serve and track tasks in real-time, ultimately enhancing their service to clients and reducing call volumes to the platform.
• The focus on improving client outcomes is evident through innovative propositions such as zero administration fee products like CFS Edge Accelerate 100 and HUB24 Discover, aimed at addressing advice affordability and competing with industry funds.
• Noteworthy platform enhancements include North’s addition of fractional shares in managed accounts, CFS Edge’s division of client accounts into sub-accounts for greater flexibility, and CFS FirstChoice’s streamlined origination journey, all contributing to adviser efficiency gains and improved client outcomes.

Advisers can gain access to the 2024 Platform Market Wrap by subscribing to the SuitabilityHub research software.

Modernisation of digital self-service

Platforms are paving the road towards a state where they can be true digital offerings that allow advisers to self-serve more efficiently. A key focus of the industry over the last year has been on enabling advisers to place more instructions online without filling forms, processing them without human intervention in their back-end, and facilitating real-time tracking over such service requests.

“We are seeing platforms modernising to become more like everyday apps, such as Uber or Amazon, when facilitating requests from the adviser office,” said Recep Peker, Managing Director of SuitabilityHub. “There is a growing range of instructions advisers can simply provide through the platform’s online interface, and then track their status in real-time through platform work tracker.”

“When platforms are prompt and transparent, when they execute well, it helps the adviser look good in front of their clients. It’s one of those things that helps build trust in the adviser-client relationship.”

Key developments in this area include BT Panorama’s continued investment in its workflow tracker, which launched in late 2022 with the innovation of providing advisers estimated completion dates for tasks based on a 7-day rolling average. In 2023, BT incorporated the tracker into its adviser mobile app and built proactive features such as providing task-specific forms through the tracker. HUB24, Macquarie Wrap and North each added greater granularity to their respective workflow trackers, helping advisers better follow progress and identify if the next action is on them, the client or the platform admin team.

“Platforms that are modernising their digital self-service offerings are reporting significantly reduced call volumes, as client service officers now have a compelling alternative to waiting on hold to get an update on a specific task,” said Peker. “This allows both the adviser office and the platform service centre to dedicate themselves to more value-add activities.”

Improving client outcomes

In tandem with the advancements in digital self-service, platform providers are focusing on enhancing client outcomes. Client best interest duty looms large in the minds of advisers, and platform providers strive to win advisers over with propositions that enable them to better demonstrate they are acting in the best interest of clients. Three key levers are being pulled to achieve this: fees, targeted additions to the product suite, and new functionality.

The last months of 2023 saw the launch of two next generation propositions with cheaper SMA-based menus. The new offerings from HUB24 Discover and CFS Edge Accelerate leverage scale and manager relationships to deliver zero or discounted platform administration fees to clients, targeting a total cost to client of less than 1%.

“CFS Edge’s Accelerate Series and HUB24’s Discover represent big steps in helping advisers address the issue of advice affordability,” said Bailey Hao, Senior Analyst at SuitabilityHub. “Their range of associated cost benefits, most notably a zero or reduced platform administration fee, places them in a very competitive position against industry funds.”

From a product perspective, there is a particular focus on delivering solutions to help advisers service the pre-retiree and retiree markets. North has been leading the way with its MyNorth Lifetime suite to provide a guaranteed stream of lifetime income, which afford advisers the flexibility of a wrap account while granting clients a variety of tax and social security benefits. Meanwhile, HUB24 and Netwealth have natively integrated Allianz Retire+ AGILE and Challenger fixed-term annuities respectively, allowing advisers to administer these solutions like other investments on the platform.

Our favourite innovations

Each year, a number of platform enhancements stand out for their ability to improve client outcomes, create adviser efficiency gains, and be innovative. Looking over the past 12 months, our favourite innovations include:

• North facilitating fractional shares in managed accounts: This innovation will enable advisers to recommend SMAs to more clients, particularly those with lower balances, democratising client access to SMAs and improving client outcomes from better tracking of the manager’s target model and reduced cash drag.
• CFS Edge dividing client accounts into sub-accounts: This simple yet high impact innovation delivers greater flexibility and ease in implementing advice strategies. For example, by making applying a bucket strategy for retirees easier. Not having to set up multiple accounts also helps reduce administrative burden, such as effort in generating reports.
• CFS FirstChoice’s new origination journey: Facilitated by Elemnta and its integration with Xplan, this delivers significant time savings when opening platform accounts. It includes pre-populating data from Xplan, setting up multiple accounts across a family group in one go, completing multiple forms without re-keying data, and two-step rollovers to save time in situations where the original super fund has insurance attached.

Many more great innovations that benefit advisers and their clients are listed in the full report.

About the report

The inaugural edition of the SuitabilityHub Platform Market Wrap provides a comprehensive view of Australia’s platform industry. Designed for financial advisers and product providers, the report covers the latest changes to platform propositions and reviews the cost and feature competitiveness of Australia’s most widely used platforms.

The post SuitabilityHub releases its 2024 Platform Market Wrap appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Satisfaction with platforms has eased slightly.

Leading research firm Investment Trends has released its latest Adviser Technology Needs Report, an in-depth look at the evolving technology needs of financial advisers, as well as their usage of platforms and planning software.

Now in its eighteenth year, the latest Report reveals that satisfaction with platforms has eased slightly.

Industry wide, the proportion of advisers who rated their overall satisfaction with their main platform as ‘very good’ has fallen from 30% to 28% in the last year. Overall satisfaction has seen a declining trend since the highs observed in 2014 (40%).

“The challenging business conditions brought by the pandemic has undoubtedly put pressure on platforms to maintain high service levels to advisers and their clients,” said Bailey Hao, Senior Analyst at Investment Trends.

Industry wide overall satisfaction has fallen, but across 25 individual service areas measured, advisers remain highly satisfied with their main platforms’ online transaction capabilities (49% rate it as ‘very good’), ease of use (44%) and level of fees (42%).

“While platforms serve advisers well in many areas, there is still significant room for improvement. Our satisfaction gap analysis highlights that adviser-facing support services should be a focus area – especially the call centre,” explained Hao.

“Since advisers most prefer to turn to their platform’s call centre for their support needs, platforms must devote more attention to improving their contact centre experience given its integral role in lifting overall satisfaction ratings.”

In 2021, Netwealth remains the highest rated platform by overall satisfaction, with a composite overall satisfaction score of 80%, ahead of HUB24 (78%) in second spot. The top five platforms by overall satisfaction are:

1. Netwealth (80%)
2. HUB24 (78%)
3. BT Panorama (75%)
4. CFS FirstChoice (73%)
5. Macquarie Wrap (73%)

Each year, Investment Trends assigns Awards for Excellence to commend platforms that stood out. Netwealth emerged as the highest rated platform for overall satisfaction by its users. It is also the highest rated for ‘value for money’, while BT Panorama leads in user satisfaction for ‘mobile access/app’.

About the report

Now in its eighteenth year, the Investment Trends 2021 Adviser Technology Needs Report examines the evolving technology needs of financial planners in their provision of advice, as well as their usage of platforms and planning software.

The Report is based on an in-depth online survey of 723 financial planners concluded in May 2021.

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• 27% of members see merging with a larger fund as a positive outcome compared to 11% who see it as a negative. The majority are indifferent
• The few who hold a negative sentiment towards mergers are most concerned about potential negative impacts on fees and returns
• Some (18%) oppose re-branding post merger, citing the strength of the existing brand and resource wastage

Leading research firm Investment Trends has released its latest Super Member Engagement Report, an in-depth look at the attitudes and views of Australian super fund members.

Amidst the recent wave of mergers and consolidation within the superannuation industry, Investment Trends research reveals that Australian super fund members tend to view these industry wide changes in a positive manner.

If their super fund opted to merge with a larger fund, 27% of members consider this outcome to be positive, compared to 11% who view this as negative. This positive sentiment holds even if their super fund opted to merge with a smaller fund (21% positive vs 11% negative).

“There is a general view that engagement between Australians and their super fund is underwhelming, but our research shows that super fund members are very much engaged with current events, having strong opinions about their super fund’s strategic decisions,” said Bailey Hao, Senior Analyst at Investment Trends.

While members generally view mergers in a positive light, some remain wary. For the 11% of members who hold a negative sentiment about mergers, they most often cite concerns relating to potential negative impacts on fees and returns. Many are also worried about changes to customer service levels and how they interact with their super fund.

“Super funds that are in the process of merging, or thinking about doing so, will do well if they alleviate their members’ top concerns of potential increased fees and underperformance. But our research also highlights that branding plays a key role,” said Hao.

While most members (78%) are indifferent if their super fund were to change its name or logo post-merger, a large cohort (18%) oppose these potential changes.

“Those who oppose a brand change most often believe the existing brand already represents their member base well and see a refresh as a waste of resources. To limit member attrition, super funds must ensure some semblance of their current identity and values is retained before rebranding to appeal to a wider member base” explained Hao.

About the report

The Investment Trends 2021 Super Member Engagement Report provides a detailed analysis of the Australian superannuation industry, examining the sentiment, attitudes and needs of superannuation fund members.

Based on a survey of 9,179 respondents conducted from March to May 2021, the Report is the largest and most comprehensive independent study of Australian super fund members

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