Seccl has launched a tool to help advisers track the progress of their clients’ cash and assets as they move across from other providers.
The ‘transfers workbench’ will be for advisers using Seccl-powered platforms and will allow them to see each transfer’s status, the previous provider, estimated value and the total time that has elapsed since it was first instructed.
Advisers can also find an asset-by-asset breakdown of each client’s pending transfers; helping them to deal with any queries.
The Octopus-owned platform technology company said it launched the tool to help advisers stay in control of the platform transfer process.
Dan Marsh, Seccl’s head of customer, said: “Platform transfers are still a nightmare for advisers and their support teams, who are forced to endlessly chase providers for updates and maintain unwieldy spreadsheets to track the progress of their clients’ assets – as well as ask them to manually edit all-important book costs.
“Advisers using Seccl-powered platforms can now do all this straight from their transfers workbench – introducing some much-needed transparency and efficiency to an obscure and clunky process.”
The tool will allow advisers to input the book costs of assets that are being transferred, without having to leave the system.
Generally, book costs are not passed on by the ceding provider nor editable by advisers themselves, despite this being needed for capital gains tax.
Instead, advisers often have to provide platform back-office staff with the relevant details via spreadsheet for them to be manually updated, which adds delays, Seccl said.
Rather than offering a platform directly to advisers, Seccl provides technology and an outsourced custody service that allows firms to operate their own platform.
James Priday, CEO of P1 Investment Management, whose platform is powered by Seccl, said the tool has already had an impact on the number of enquiries it receives on platform transfers.
Priday said: “We chose to operate our own platform as we wanted to deliver a solution that was fast, efficient, paperless and completely transparent.
"The new transfers workbench is another way in which we can be operationally efficient while providing transparency to adviser firms, by shedding light on what’s historically been a long-winded and opaque process.
“It’s already saving our platform operations staff several hours a week, reducing transfer-related queries by 50 per cent, and helping us to deliver the fantastic level of overall service for which we’re becoming well-known.
“It’s all part and parcel of our platform’s crucial role in helping us build the efficient – and self-sufficient – business of the future.”
amy.austin@ft.com
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