Standard Life is investigating the concept of changing its self-service platform for lower wealth clients to a non-advised referral service.
The firm has been testing a self-serve platform since last year, where advisers would receive an introducer fee for referring business and Standard Life would then give telephone-based support for clients looking to transact.
It would appear now that these plans have been halted in favour of a service allowing advisers to refer clients on a non-advised basis, with no fee paid.
A spokesperson for the firm said that they started testing this idea before the pension freedoms, which changed the focus for providers and advisers.
“Advisers have clients on their books that they can no longer deal with – either because they don’t want to pay for advice or it just is not viable for an adviser to continue to advise them.
“We now offer advisers a client referral service for clients with Standard Life policies to move to us on a non-advised basis. The adviser decides when and how to refer a client, keeping them in control of the advice relationship.”
peter.walker@ft.com
