Advisers want to develop their soft skills and receive further education, according to Neil Stevens, joint chief executive officer at Fintel.
Speaking to FTAdviser, Stevens said that advisers are looking for more than just technical knowledge as they move to develop their soft skills when speaking to clients.
“The thing we're hearing more is advisers want more soft skills development, and they want more business development education as well,” he said.
“So next year, we're going to be pivoting content, not only to do technical education, but to help people run better practices, educate and develop staff as well.
“We've gotten Competent Advisers as part of Fintel to play a wider role in the education, development and accreditation for advisers.”
Earlier this year, Fintel completed two tech firm acquisitions through its subsidiaries Defaqto and Fintel IQ as it looked to expand its adviser capabilities.
In July, the company announced the purchase of Competent Adviser via Fintel IQ, a newly formed technology and knowledge platform.
Stevens said there are over 6,000 users on the my learning platform that Competent Adviser built and it is content rich which makes it great for CPD.
At the same time, the firm purchased Micap through subsidiary business Defaqto which provides independent research and advice tools for tax advantaged investment products.
Matt Timmins, joint CEO of Fintel, said alternative investment products are becoming increasingly popular amongst intermediary firms and their clients and Micap helps with that.
“We've seen an increased demand for research on alternative investment products and Micap is the clear market leader,” he said.
“That business has 7,500 users and produces 3,000 reviews on alternative investment products each year so a really important addition to the Defaqto and Fintel capability set in a market which has high demand at the moment.”
M&A
In its half year results, Fintel, the parent company of Simplybiz and Defaqto, reported statutory revenue of £31.7mn in the first half of 2023, down from £32.2mn in the same period last year.
Yet core revenue growth remained strong, up 2 per cent to £27.6mn from £27.1mn and grew 4 per cent on a like-for-like basis.
Fintel, which rebranded from The Simplybiz Group, also reported that it had “strong liquidity with cash position” of £13.3mn, up from £7.6mn in cash last year.
It said the strength of its balance sheet together with an undrawn £80mn revolving credit facility provided significant financial flexibility and headroom to capitalise on organic and M&A opportunities.
Timmins said: “We have a very active M&A pipeline at the moment.
“It's the most active that we've had in the business and we've got access to the underlying RCF service. We think it's a very active market at the moment, we're talking to businesses on a regular basis about investing into them, or acquiring them in bulk so I think you can expect to see more activity from us as we go forward.”
Tiimmins said the firm is looking at tech firms, as well as firms that will expand advice capabilities.
“You've seen the acquisitions that we've made recently, both of those firms, Competent Adviser and Micap have actually both of those elements, so they have a sound technology base, and also provide services to 1,000s of intermediary businesses, which expands our footprint,” he said.
“Where a business has both elements, that's particularly interesting to us but technology and services to intermediate firms is really important to us.”
Tech capabilities
Fintel has also renewed its contract with Intelliflo for an additional five years.
Timmins said the firm has worked with Intelliflo for 16 years, and Simplybiz represents about one quarter of their business.
“It's really important to us and our advisers that the technology continues to develop and meet the needs of adviser firms and their clients,” he said.
“We have £60bn assets under advice on the IO system so the next five year commitment means that we can invest in that relationship with confidence.
“Intelliflo have committed to greater data sharing and better integrations with us and that's going to be crucial for the advisers that we serve because it means we can join Intelliflo with all the other key parts of the advice process that advisers really need.”
He also said one piece of advice he would give to advisers is to get technology that will help with rolling out and making “consumer duty a breeze”.
“Financial advisers have the best engagement, they're the best at educating consumers, and they deliver the best outcomes,” he said.
“They just need evidence and that means getting some good technology that will help them with capturing customer journeys, reporting on the key data and having all of the information in a good orderly for that.”
He added: “They're brilliant at what they do. Get some tech and you can deal with consumer duty and the vulnerability challenges really simply without it being a huge burden.”
sonia.rach@ft.com
What's your view?
Have your say in the comments section below or email us: ftadviser.newsdesk@ft.com
