Adviser firms are increasingly using back office systems as the main hub for their administration and client relationship management. But a key challenge is that the integration between platforms, back office systems and other financial planning tools is far from perfect.
Consider this: a utopian future where the integration between systems works perfectly. Every piece of software speaks the same language and the transfer of data is accurate and reliable.
In this vision of the future, the client would engage personally with the adviser and indirectly via the secure client portal, for investment reports and correspondence. Clients would also be able to engage with financial planning tools such as cash flow planning, risk profiling and (eventually) cash management and monitoring against goals.
Will advisers increasingly focus on their back office systems and cut their involvement with platforms to the bare but very essential minimum?
Advisers want to create more efficiencies in their businesses. One way to achieve this would be to use – and pay for – a better suite of planning technology and systems that talk to each other. The fewer touchpoints in this ecosystem, the easier the job at hand.
Advisers and their support staff keep telling us they are keen to have this, although we don’t expect it to transpire any time soon. However, as integration improves, platforms could lose their place as the central hub and become just another piece in the wider technology puzzle.
We look at all the key trends impacting the adviser platform market and what the future has in store as well as all the latest platform data in our new report, UK Adviser Platforms: Market Overview. Get in touch for more details.