QuilterJan 7 2021

Quilter readies for final platform migration in February

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Quilter readies for final platform migration in February

Quilter has set a date for its final platform migration which will see 5,500 advice firms move to the new technology in February. 

In a letter sent to advisers today (January 7) the advice giant said its third migration would take place over a four-day period between Thursday 25 and Sunday 28 February this year. 

The long-awaited final stage in the process will see the remaining 20 per cent of assets on Old Mutual Wealth, Quilter's UK platform, moved to the company's new technology. 

Quilter completed the second stage of its migration in November, when 70 per cent of assets and some 2,000 advice firms were transferred to its new platform over the course of a weekend. 

Last year the company moved to split the second part of its migration into two phases in a bid to manage logistical constraints presented by the coronavirus crisis, with the final of these stages scheduled for next month. 

Jeremy Mugridge, head of proposition at Old Mutual Wealth, said the company's "absolute focus" was on helping advisers prepare for the move to its new platform technology.

Mr Mugridge said: "Those advisers in our first two migrations who engaged with the training and materials we made available had a better migration experience, so I would encourage advisers in our final migration to take the time to get ready and familiarise themselves with our online support hub.

"With a potentially worsening Covid-19 situation in mind, we have added to our online resources so that all advisers can prepare themselves remotely.

"We continue to monitor the ongoing Covid situation closely and will keep our advisers and their clients up to date with any developments."

The road to replatforming has been long and costly for Quilter. The company has spent about £360m on the project since it began in 2014, and it switched technology providers in 2017.

Advisers included in the second tranche of transfers were initially expected to migrate by the end of summer, but the Covid-19 outbreak pushed that date back first to October and then again to the end of November.

Mr Mugridge added: "We are extremely grateful to them [the advisers who have already migrated] for helping us develop and shape the new platform to ensure the advisers who are about to move over are adopting the best possible platform functionality." 

Quilter previously told FTAdviser it had “learned some lessons” from other platforms that had done similar changes and had therefore split up migration groups and pushed deadlines back to be “extra cautious”.

rachel.mortimer@ft.com