Investment platform Alliance Trust Savings has seen a boom in new business from advisers in the first quarter of the year as a result of the RDR, its boss has said.
“We had an enormous demand. We will do more adviser business in the first quarter of 2013 than all of 2012,” said Patrick Mill, managing director of Alliance Trust Savings, in an interview with Money Management.
“We’re getting lots of advisers approaching us and wanting to talk to us and we need to meet that demand,” he added.
Mr Mill said the platform’s objective under the RDR is to position itself as a solution for both direct investors and intermediaries because of its flat charging structure.
“Historically only fee-charging advisers used us, but starting this year all advisers use adviser charging, so we can service that market,” he said.
Mr Mill’s comments follow the release of parent company Alliance Trust’s results this week, which showed the platform earned a profit in the fourth quarter of 2012, posting an overall loss of £400,000 for the year compared with a loss of £2.3m for 2011.
“In 2013 we will be profitable for the whole year,” Mr Mill said, adding that the sale of the platform’s Ssas and £3bn full Sipp book to Xafinity and Curtis Banks did not contribute to its profitability.
“I sold the Ssas and full Sipp because we wanted to focus on the full business of the platform,” he said. “It has allowed us to create some efficiencies.” He added that, while it means a minor drop in income, it brought with it lower costs and the opportunity to focus on the service’s core offerings.
One of the biggest challenges facing the platform market this year is the release of the FSA’s platform paper, which has been delayed until 18 April.
Mr Mill said while no one knows what the final rules will be, all platforms will have to react quickly in order to implement the FSA’s guidelines within the 12-month time limit.
