Standard Life's Wrap platform is set for further change in the summer, according to the company’s head of proposition David Tiller.
Mr Tiller said the existing Professional Portfolio Manager service, which was launched last year, would have further levels of automation added and allow advisers to create individually managed accounts.
He said: “The existing service has a lot of automation, as long as the adviser doesn't want to do much that is discretionary.
"The aim of the Individually Managed Accounts is to allow the adviser to automate more, in a way that is tailored.
"We think of investment management as having three components, the strategic asset allocation, the fund selection and sometimes the shorter term considerations, or special considerations.
"So the new service would allow a client who has an environmental, social and governance (ESG) requirement, or one who has a capital gains tax requirement, to have that added onto the account by the adviser, and then be automated.”
He said the motivation for the new functions is the realisation that regulatory pressures mean investment management is taking up an increasing proportion of an advisers time, and fuelling the growth of outsourcing by advisers to discretionary fund managers and multi-asset funds.
Mr Tiller said that any upcoming bear market is likely to increase the level of scrutiny advisers face from clients, and he hopes the new service will save advisers time.
He added that Standard Life is working on a tool to automate drawdown, but that this product is several years from being ready to come to market.
Mark Polson, principal at platform consultancy Lang Cat, said: "For the past 10 years the way advisers have created portfolios has been reactive as the market has generally gone up.
"But in 2019 it is likely to be different."
david.thorpe@ft.com
