Standard Life is integrating the financial planning and investment aspects of its wrap platform as it looks to support clients who are making use of the pension freedoms.
According to an announcement published today (26 April), Standard Life is aiming to bolster its financial planning support by installing more automated processes, while giving advisers the ability to tailor investment portfolios and tax strategies.
The pension freedoms have given savers more flexibility with their money, increasing the amount of investable wealth.
According to David Tiller, head of adviser and wealth manager propositions at Standard Life, this has altered what advisers want from platforms.
He said Standard Life has revamped its wrap platform to reflect this change by making its back office technology and reporting systems more efficient.
It also offers more support for retirement planning and wealth transfers, by giving access to junior products, tax efficient Aim portfolios, and offering new tools and alerts for clients in retirement.
Earlier this month Mr Tiller outlined Standard Life’s plans for its newly-purchased Elevate platform, which is set to remain as a standalone business.
“The post freedoms world is well established and we are seeing more people in control of increasing amounts of pension wealth,” Mr Tiller said, adding platforms should be able to deal with multiple tax strategies.
He said adviser businesses are now adopting a ‘family office’ type approach by employing experts, which means they are looking for more from their platform provider.
Mike Hogg, head of proposition for Standard Life, said the plans have been developed to support the growth of advisers’ businesses, which increasingly combine portfolio management techniques with tax and financial planning services.
“Bringing together these two capabilities into a single platform will mean wealth management businesses can deliver a fully integrated service to their clients.”
Dan Farrow, director of SBN Wealth Management, said: “Given that most platform providers, including Standard Life, have starved their respective offerings of investment in the last few years, this is obviously good news."
But he questioned whether that should just be expected anyway.
"I would use Standard Life much more if the charging structure wasn’t so complicated and opaque, which is why the likes of Alliance Trust, with fixed fee charging, provide such a compelling proposition in the current market place.”
katherine.denham@ft.com
