PlatformsJun 27 2018

Transact’s Taylor says inflows beating outflows 10-1

twitter-iconfacebook-iconlinkedin-iconmail-iconprint-icon
Search supported by
Transact’s Taylor says inflows beating outflows 10-1

Transact is attracting £10 in investor cash held on its investment platform for every £1 pulled out, according to Ian Taylor, chief executive of the business.

Transact’s parent company, Integrafin, floated on the London Stock Exchange in March 2018 with a valuation of £649m.

In May, in its first and most recent set of results as a listed business, the company reported assets under management of £29.7bn.

Mr Taylor told FTAdviser: “We can confirm that the total value of our transfers in from all platforms is currently more than ten times the value of transfers out”.

He refused to be drawn on whether his platform has seen a particular spike in inflows from the Aegon-Cofunds or Aviva platforms, both of which have seen considerable disquiet from clients as a result of ongoing IT issues.

Ian Lowes, managing director of Lowes Financial Management in Newcastle and a long time Aegon client, said he has seen little improvement in the service and that the problems with the platform are costing his firm dearly.

He said he is currently “holding out” for improvements rather than switching to a rival like Transact.

As FTAdviser previously reported, Aegon has apologised to clients for the poor service since the replatforming at the start of May, and said achieving cost savings was “not a factor” in choosing to re-platform at the time they did.

The company stated: “The decision on the timing of the integration was taken in conjunction with Aegon’s advisory board, established to inform the integration approach and guide the platform’s future development.

"The advisory board had previously asked the business to avoid the busy run up to tax year end. The board agreed that scheduling the upgrade over a long weekend, when markets are closed for an extended period, will enable advisers to move seamlessly to the enhanced platform.”

But while FTAdviser has been inundated with advisers unhappy at the level of service they have recieved from Aegon since the re-platforming took place, Mike Barrett of consultancy firm the Lang Cat, said advisers are more likely to persevere with their existing platform, regardless of the quality of service, due to the hassle involved in switching.

Mr Barrett said: “I  would expect there might be some advisers who, when faced with the sort of service issues that Aegon and Aviva have been encountering might start to consider using alternative platforms, however in practice this is often a challenge.

"If you are moving because of service issues you need to be careful that you are not jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.

"As a result I’d expect that some advisers might stop using them for new business, but I think it’s less likely they will start moving any existing business.”

Scott Gallacher, of Rowley Tourton Private Wealth Management in Leicester said: “ We have actively started to review clients with a view to moving the majority of clients away from Cofunds probably to Transact.

“It might be more expensive for some clients but for some it’s cheaper. If it was significantly more expensive we wouldn't move them out.”

The Old Mutual Wealth platform confirmed it has not seen any significant changes or an above average set of inflows from Aegon clients over the past month.

Other platforms contacted by FTAdviser declined to comment.

David.Thorpe@ft.com