Key findings of the Investment Trends 2015 Platform Report:
- Platforms have focused on improving planner efficiency and supporting business growth
- Helping planners engage clients is a key battle ground
- netwealth took the lead as number one in overall platform functionality
The December 2015 Platform Report, released to Investment Trends’ clients in December, is an in-depth study of the investment platforms used by Australia’s financial planners. The report covers 506 key characteristics of each platform and its service offering, providing a unique insight into their competitive standing and emerging trends across the industry. This year’s study highlights a number of interesting trends:
Platforms have focused on improving planner efficiency and supporting business growth
Investment Trends’ flagship study of financial planners in 2015 identified efficiency and adviser support to be key areas planners would like their platforms to improve.
Our latest benchmarking study found platform providers’ development efforts throughout 2015 have been very focused on planners’ needs. Common themes include enhancements to usability, to help improve planner efficiency, and adviser support/communication, to help advisers grow their business.
“With the aim of improving adviser efficiency and providing greater transparency, the platform industry saw continued focus on enhancing and refreshing platform portals,” said Investment Trends Senior Analyst King Loong Choi.
North Online was the platform which made the greatest advances in functionality after it refreshed the entire platform with a modern, crisp and clean design. The navigation has been improved to be even more user-friendly and to allow the quick and easy movement between different tasks and different clients.
HUB24 has been one of the stand outs when it comes to providing advisers control over the information displayed on the adviser dashboard. Customisable tiles or ‘portlets’ provide information on key business metrics to advisers, and on areas of interest to their clients.
Adviser support has also been a key area of focus, with many platforms improving the navigational efficiency of their adviser support pages. BT Wrap, CFS FirstChoice and North Online all launched new adviser support tools, or redesigned previous adviser support pages, to make it easier for advisers to find the information and help they are looking for.
BT Wrap’s new BT Adviser Centre is notable as a one-stop-shop for advisers to gain access to strategies, product information, blogs, practice management tips, super contribution strategies and CPD points.
“We have continued to see platforms provide advisers support from new angles rather than just the traditional ‘how to use the platform better’ guides,” said Choi. “Key areas of focus include providing strategies which advisers can use to enhance their businesses, and the ability for advisers to easily share research/education with clients to help lift their engagement.”
Helping planners engage clients is a key battle ground
Being able to demonstrate value to clients has always been important to planners, but this has grown even further in importance following recent regulatory changes. Platforms which help planners better demonstrate value to clients and improve client engagement levels have been gaining market share in recent years.
“Reporting tools are one of the key platform capabilities which help planners demonstrate value to their clients,” said Choi. “While numerous platforms have made improvements to their reporting tools in 2015, Macquarie Wrap has been notable in this space with the introduction of its Portfolio Review Report.”
“This tablet-friendly report has been designed to maximise client engagement during the review process, and includes differentiating features like income projections for all investments held to more easily manage client cash flow expectations.”
Numerous platforms also made enhancements to their investor portals to broaden the functionality and improve the experience for clients. The new MyAMP client portal, available to clients of both AMP Flexible Super and North Online, is among the best client portals currently available.
“Client engagement is likely to remain a key battleground for platforms, and we expect to see continued innovation in this area over the coming years,” said Choi.
netwealth took the lead as number one in overall platform functionality
Among full-function platforms (those supporting planners advising on a wide range of investments, including direct equities) netwealth climbed to take the number one position in terms of overall functionality. The five top-ranking full-function platforms were:
- netwealth
- Colonial First State FirstWrap
- HUB24
- Asgard eWRAP
- MLC Wrap & Navigator
netwealth also ranked first for transaction tools, decision support tools and online business management tools. It also received the award for best model portfolio functionality. Recent enhancements introduced by netwealth include:
- Electronic signatures
- Brand new fund comparison functionality
- Introduction of managed accounts functionality
- Improvements to transactional capabilities, including the ability to add narrations (individually or in bulk) to transactions
- Improved usability of reporting tools
- Introduction of an online document upload facility
- Continued enhancements to the user interface
