Clients of the Royal London owned Ascentric platform are faced with problems following a recent technology upgrade, the company has confirmed.
Ascentric moved clients to its revamped platform over the weekend of 20 April 2018, and in May the departure of Jon Taylor, the chief executive of Ascentric, was confirmed.
At the time of Mr Taylor’s departure, Phil Loney, chief executive of Royal London, praised Mr Taylor’s work on the technology upgrade.
But in a statement released to FTAdviser this morning, Ascentric said: “With any re-platforming programme there are challenges and we have done everything we can to mitigate those, including taking a phased approach with our customers.
"To ensure the platform is fit for the needs of our customers we also have actively encouraged continuous feedback, acting on it in collaboration with our advisers.”
Jason Hemmings, a partner at Cornerstone Asset Management in Edinburgh, said he expects the upgraded platform to save his company 30 hours' work a week.
The company said there is an issue with a “small number” of client accounts not being able to receive income payments, and said it is working to resolve the issue.
The issue at Ascentric is just the latest to afflict the platform industry, following a wave of complaints from clients of the Aviva and Aegon platforms, with both firms forced to compensate clients.
Advisers continue to report problems with Aegon, following the replatforming the firm carried out over the May bank holiday weekend.
One adviser, who has several hundred million pounds of client assets on the platform, said he continues to experience problems. He described the Service Level Agreements Aegon have with clients as a “joke.”
David.Thorpe@ft.com
