QuilterMar 10 2021

Advisers to leave Quilter during 2021 in productivity drive

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Advisers to leave Quilter during 2021 in productivity drive

Chief executive Paul Feeney said the chief executive of Quilter Financial Planning, Stephen Gazard, would be repositioning the business to drive stronger net flows.

He said: "Stephen’s focus is straightforward: to take our existing strong franchise and simplify it to deliver cost effective, client-focused propositions that deliver good-outcomes to our customers.

"This makes the next stage of Quilter Financial Planning’s evolution a very exciting one.

"While this will lead to certain advisers who are either not fully aligned with our proposition or who lack sufficient scale or strategic alignment leaving the business in 2021, we will have a simpler higher growth business delivering quality assured client outcomes to an even higher level of consistency."

Quilter also announced it would transfer Quilter Private Client Advisers into its discretionary fund management business Quilter Cheviot later this year to create a single business with an advice arm and a DFM arm.

Quilter said combining these businesses formed part of its ongoing plans to simplify the company and better align its services to its core customer groups.

Quilter stated: “Combining these businesses will allow us to deliver a seamless client proposition encompassing advice and bespoke investment management. 

“Where desired, this will ensure integrated delivery of good client outcomes, while helping us maximise the growth potential within our higher net worth proposition.”

This change was announced in Quilter’s full year results for 2020, published this morning (March 10), which showed Quilter Cheviot attracted net inflows of £300m compared to outflows of £800m in 2019.

The results also revealed that following the final migration onto its new platform, which took place last month, the company has now appointed Steven Levin, who led the platform’s implementation, as chief executive of Quilter Investors.

Levin will maintain his existing responsibilities for the Quilter platform.

Feeney said: “As we seek to drive growth and efficiency across Quilter, we believe it makes sense to bring these two parts of our organisation closer together. 

“I have tasked Steven with simplifying the client experience and ensuring a seamless approach to customer pricing and proposition development to further drive and deliver good customer outcomes.”

Lighthouse

The advice giant also revealed the amount it has set aside for potential claims made against acquired firm Lighthouse by British Steel Pension Scheme members remains at £24m as set out in August 2020.

The company said net provision remains at £24m while a total provision of £28m has been calculated, including anticipated costs of legal and professional fees associated with the redress activity.

This compares to the company's initial estimation of £12m, which was originally intended to cover 30 complaints concerning advice given by Lighthouse. 

However, this cost could be higher.

The firm stated: “The final costs of redress for cases upheld will depend on specific calculations on a case-by-case basis, and will be impacted by market movements and other parameters affecting the defined contribution scheme asset.

“Final redress costs are therefore exposed to volatility from these movements which may result in final settlement cost varying from the amounts currently provided.”

Last year it transpired the Financial Conduct Authority had begun an enforcement investigation against Lighthouse, which was bought by Quilter in June 2019, for its defined benefit transfer advice linked to British Steel members.

In today’s update, Quilter said it continues to work and co-operate with the FCA and the skilled person who has been appointed, with their work to be released in the annual report.

Replatforming

Meanwhile, Quilter has completed its replatforming, with the migration now finalised.

The company first started to move clients onto the new platform in February 2020, initially starting with 8 per cent of total platform assets.

Its second migration completed in November 2020, which covered the majority (70 per cent) of total platform assets and about 2,000 adviser firms. 

Finally, around 5,000 adviser firms were involved in the last migration in February 2021.

Feeney said: “Successful platform migrations on this scale are rare and they are rare for a reason given their complex organisational, logistical and technological demands. We are pleased to have not only successfully completed this programme safely but to also have embedded the core competencies for a transformation project of this scale into our core business skillset.

“We are delighted to have reached this milestone and our unique combination of flexible product wrappers, sophisticated management of investment solutions and range of tools, all built on robust new technology delivers an advanced platform experience for the intermediary community. 

“We have already received excellent feedback on day-to-day usability, simplicity of portfolio management as well as our bespoke reporting features. Each of these are designed to make an adviser’s life easier.”

amy.austin@ft.com

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