Alliance Trust’s platform proposition, Alliance Trust Savings, has registered strong growth in adviser business in the early post-2012 world, with the firm on track to record double its 2012 sales total in the first three months of the year alone.
Speaking to FTAdviser, Patrick Mills, managing director, said the platform was benefiting from the move to adviser charging post-Retail Distribution Review as it had not previously offered commission options and thus would not have been able to generate traction in the intermediary market.
Mr Mills said the platform, which previously operated an exclusively direct-to-consumer model, was coming from a “low base” and has now risen adviser assets to around £500m. Total assets on the platform stand at around £4.5bn.
He added that the firm was seeking to increase adviser assets to around £3bn within three years, which would eventually represent around 35 per cent of the platform’s assets - equating to a total of approximately £8.5bn.
Mr Mills said alongside the growth in adviser assets there was also strong growth in consumer business, with a wider trend towards so-called ‘DIY’ investing resulting in “young investors with smaller amounts to invest” moving on to the platform.
He said the continued drive to transparency when the Financial Services Authority’s platform rules - which he said he would have “liked to see sooner” - finally come into effect some time in 2014 would likely provide a further boost to business.
Mr Mills said Alliance Trust operates a completely clean fee share class model and called for the regulator to remove rebates “in any way, shape or form”.
In particular, Mr Mills said he had questions around unit rebates, which the FSA indicated in its latest consultation paper it might allow in place of cash rebates, as this could add confusion for consumers if such rebates are considered to be taxable.
Describing the lack of clarity from the regulator as “slightly frustrating”, he said: “Would the client really want to fill out a tax return for their unit rebates?
“We’d eventually like to see all charges in pounds and pence... to get to a point where the fund manager was telling us that, for example, a particular fund investment had cost £1,500 to administer”.
