So, last week we did the AdviceTech Catwalk and had a blast. I wrote in last week’s Update that this event was the very first lang cat show where I had literally nothing to do and wasn’t doing anything on stage, and as I expected it did feel very, very weird just watching. 

But as the afternoon went on I kind of settled into it, and even found a couple of jobs to do, handing out microphones and then doing the cloakroom, which was inordinately satisfying. That said, I am now placing an immediate ban on black rucksacks, as they all look the same and it is Ridiculous.  

More importantly, though, the day went off without a hitch and that’s not an easy thing to pull off. The Furious Five Fintechs were outstanding, the High Inquisitors were br00tal, the alumni of last year’s Catwalk all seem to be doing well, and our own Natalie and Ben were absolute pros at anchoring it. Everyone appeared to have a nice time, relatively few moaned about having sore bottoms from sitting on church pews, and while the day was obviously about new technology, having an Actual Back To The Future Delorean outside thanks to FNZ that you could have your pic taken with didn’t hurt either. 

The winner of the ceremonial Catwalk packet of Rolos was Tikker. I’m not smart enough to do them justice, but broadly speaking their system removes the need for MPS managers to log into 25 different platforms to rebalance or maintain portfolios; you log into Tikker, do what you need to do, and it then spaffs your instructions out to all the platforms. Good for consistency, good for efficiency, very Consumer Dutery.  

Here’s an interesting thing – at an event focused on advicetech, a system that virtually no adviser will ever use themselves picked up the prize. In so doing they defeated two very functionally rich AI co-pilot systems, a very cool digital vault offering and a really interesting values-based portfolio construction proposition. All were worthy finalists and any could have won. 

But it’s worth reflecting on why Tikker picked up the prize, and I think there are two key reasons. First up, advisers know fine well that MPS management across platforms is both a guddle and a muddle. So Tikker is addressing something that needs fixed, just like Zerokey last year was addressing rekeying of data. That’s good. What’s better, though, is that because both Tikker and Zerokey are trying to fix something broken, it’s easy to get your head round it. Another way to say that is this: many advisers wake up wishing portfolio management was better, or that rekeying data was a thing of the past.  

Most advicetech concentrates on making things better rather than fixing things. For example, suitability co-pilots are awesome, but of course advisers are fine with doing suitability already; it comes with the job, sort of thing. So it’s a bit harder to make the case in a really clear way; fewer advisers wake up wanting to invite the machines in to make suitability a bit quicker.  

That might be something to remember for anyone thinking about applying for next year’s Catwalk… 

Anyway, if you’re an adviser reading this, there are many, many smart people with good ideas developing things to make your life easier, more interesting, or more effective. Even if you aren’t a natural early adopter, it’s good to know all this is going on and that You Are Worth It.

Your music choice this week is a really lovely slip of a thing from the man who gave the lang cat its name. Please do have a wee listen to A Moment Longer by James Yorkston, featuring Nina Persson out of the Cardigans too. I think you’ll love it.