What Tom Waits has to say about legacy business

First off, it’s been a shockingly long time since I wrote this blog. Poor form, been busy, blah blah. How’ve you been? Yes, yes I know. Yes, it is worrying. No, I don’t think putting a Greek island in your SIPP is a good idea. Shall we? Some years ago, when tripartite DFM agreements were […]

Noddle use required

So I had an interesting day yesterday at the Platforum regional roadshow in sunny Polmont (aim for the big oil refinery, you can’t miss it, unless you’re Holly). Lots of good sessions, free flip-flops on the Aviva stand and, most importantly, Rory Percival, the FSA’s technical specialist on platformy things. Incidentally, Glasvegas wrote a song […]

Unbundling and the Big Three

Well now, I was never going to be able to resist this. 2 April 2012 was the day that the first of the Big Three fund supermarkets got their act together and launched into the unbundled space. Fidelity FundsNetwork were the winner, beating Cofunds by a lap or so, with Skandia still faffing around in […]

Unbundling and the Big Three

Well now, I was never going to be able to resist this. 2 April 2012 was the day that the first of the Big Three fund supermarkets got their act together and launched into the unbundled space. Fidelity FundsNetwork were the winner, beating Cofunds by a lap or so, with Skandia still faffing around in […]

Go where the risk is

So I just had a good chat with the entirely excellent Jun at Citywire about the FSA’s concerns on single platform usage, conflicts of interest, nasty letters and all that kind of thing. Also today, I read about FundsNetwork reanimating their £50/£100 bung for IFAs putting ISA cases onto their platform. And I’ve been hearing […]

A low speed train crash

So it’s been ages since I last posted, most remiss of me, sorry for causing an aching void in your lives, that sort of thing. It’s been a busy old time at the lang cat; we’ve been involved in all sorts of fun stuff from TCF reviews of platform literature right through to proposition development […]

Don’t take us for idiots

In an earlier post, I had a bit of a go in an open letter at direct-to-customer platform giant Hargreaves Lansdown over their charging structure. Lots of people seemed to agree, and I’m pleased to say that…it’s made not the slightest bit of difference. That’s the power of social media. Or something. At the moment, […]

Don’t take us for idiots

In an earlier post, I had a bit of a go in an open letter at direct-to-customer platform giant Hargreaves Lansdown over their charging structure. Lots of people seemed to agree, and I’m pleased to say that…it’s made not the slightest bit of difference. That’s the power of social media. Or something. At the moment, […]

Will platform margins really halve in 3 years?

Hmmm! The redoubtable Southampton-based platform behemoth Skandia has started 2012 in characteristically robust fashion by jack-in-the-boxing on Citywire and predicting that platform margins will halve by 2015. According to Skandia, the market is at 30-50bps now, and will be at 20-25bps by 2015. Only 10 platforms will survive. Cue the Destiny’s Child song of your […]

Will platform margins really halve in 3 years?

Hmmm! The redoubtable Southampton-based platform behemoth Skandia has started 2012 in characteristically robust fashion by jack-in-the-boxing on Citywire and predicting that platform margins will halve by 2015. According to Skandia, the market is at 30-50bps now, and will be at 20-25bps by 2015. Only 10 platforms will survive. Cue the Destiny’s Child song of your […]

Impact of poor service

/ White papers

The Impact of Poor Service

We provided the research for a report, in conjunction with Parmenion, which reveals how far short of expectations many adviser platforms are falling. The research found that over the last 12 months, 88% of advisers needed to apologise to at least one of their clients on behalf of a platform, and that poor service delivery from platforms impacts 91% of advisers every day.

Impact of poor service

/ White papers

The Impact of Poor Platform Service

We provided the research for a report, in conjunction with Parmenion, which reveals how far short of expectations many adviser platforms are falling. The research found that over the last 12 months, 88% of advisers needed to apologise to at least one of their clients on behalf of a platform, and that poor service delivery from platforms impacts 91% of advisers every day.

/ White papers

Answering the Call

Service means a lot of things to a lot of different people. It’s so subjective it can be hard to put your finger on. This paper aims to challenge the status quo and inertia that’s built up in the sector for many years.