Platform satisfaction is at its highest level in seven years, according to research from Adviser Ratings.
Ahead of the latest Financial Advice Landscape report, the advice industry researcher found the improvement of platforms was making the lives of financial advisers easier.
“Basically, people are happy,” Woods said. “Advisers are happy with the investment that’s been made over the last three, four years in all platforms.”
The biggest players in the platform space HUB24 and Netwealth had a 2025 net promoter score of 42 and 33 respectively. This is an increase from 25 for both in 2020.
However, BT Panorama dropped from 16 to five and Macquarie dropped from -6 to -28 in that same time frame.
AMP North had seen a rebound from -5 in 2020 to 19, while CFS FirstChoice increased from 17 to 29 and CFS FirstWrap improved from -10 to -2.
Source: Adviser Ratings
Woods also credited Insignia Financial-owned MLC Expand, which had a NPS of 22, a significant increase of the -9 it scored in 2020.
“Credit to the likes of Expand…migrating the MLC clients across and investing in that space, at least from an ease of functionality they are trying to catch up through SMEs and through basically expanding that element,” Woods said.
In May 2024, Insignia completed the migration of over 94,000 client accounts holding $38.6 billion funds under administration from MLC Wrap, MLC Navigator and associated offers to its Expand platform.
Yesterday, Insignia announced it will be reducing fees on Expand which the platform claims will benefit 240,000 super, pension and investment clients.
Uptick in risk-interested clients
The most common topics that clients are asking their advisers about include life and IP insurance along with retirement income and wealth transfer.
The research showed 32 per cent were talking with their clients about life and IP insurance, which Woods said was an increase compared to previous years.
The report also found 75 per cent were talking with clients about retirement income and 41 per cent about the intergenerational wealth transfer.
“This is a really good opportunity for insurers to be part of that conversation, be part of that conversation with the younger generation, which is the more profitable generation for insurers,” Woods said.
“Being part of that discussion, I believe, is an area [where] insurers can actually start to ingrain themselves, within licensees, within practices.”
Recession concerns were at 38 per cent, with discussions about investing in AI at 19 per cent.
A lower amount of clients wanted to talk about geopolitical concerns; 11 per cent wanted to talk about United States economics.
“There were a few outliers in terms of what are clients coming in and asking their advisers about. Back at the time, and it’s still actually relevant today, the impact of the US economics and the geopolitical environment that’s coming out of the States.”
